Fistful Of Dollars, A (DVD)

The birth of the Italian western came right at the heels of the waning interest in the previously popular sword and sandals films, as many of those films were not only Italian made, but also many Hollywood spectacles like Ben-Hur and Quo Vadis were also filmed in Italy. With this shift in popularity, the new genre of completely Italian produced westerns, spearheaded by Michael Carreras' "Savage Guns" in 1961, provided a fertile and interesting breeding ground for a new genre of films that up until then had not gathered enough popularity to prosper. In the early 1960s, the Italian western still lacked several of the specific traits that made later films in the ...  Read the complete review

note: also appears in part on The Student Room and Flixster A Fistfull of Dollars is the first in the spaghetti western trilogy by legendary Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone, which also included The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, and also For A Few Dollars More. They all depict the exploits of the notorious Man with No Name (Clint Eastwood), as he treks across various terrains with his skill in weaponry and sheer guile as his tools. In Fistfull, he arrives at a border town named San Miguel, where two mob families are warring, and essentially Eastwood's character plays both sides against the middle, promising to both that he will put the other to rest. He ...  Read the complete review

Sergio Leone’s ‘A Fistful Of Dollars’ was actually release back in 1964 but it wasn’t until 1967 that an English language version of the film became available. It was very heavily influenced by Akira Kurosawa’s ‘Yojimbo’, so much so that Kurosawa actually sued for plagiarism but even if Leone did rip off Kurosawa there can be denying that this a classic film and a very atmospheric one. It also brought Clint Eastwood to the attention of the big screen, who up to that point was more familiar for his role in the tv series ‘Rawhide’. Although it’s interesting to note that Eastwood was not the first choice ...  Read the complete review

When Sergio Leone made the first of his ‘Spaghetti’ westerns 'A Fistful of Dollars'(1964) it seemed he had invented a new genre in cinema. These low-budget westerns filmed in Europe featuring mainly European actors, with their propensity for theatrical violence were seen by the fans of the traditional western as a cheap tawdry imitation of a classic film genre. BACKGROUND Sergio Leone cut his teeth in cinema by making the so-called ‘sword and sandal’ epics in Italy in the late fifties and early 60's along with other future ‘spaghetti’ western directors such as Mario Bava, Sergio Corbucci and Domenico ...  Read the complete review

Okay. Let me say that I have been a Clint Eastwood fan for years and I love nothing better than relaxing in front of an old Western on TVs. Fistful of Dollars was "the big one" in Clint Eastwood's career. It put him on the map as a cult hero figure. Lots of action, good short to the point lines and a plot you can follow. He was able to give the audience a true grit-eating, swearing, smoking, bad guy shooting, tough guy - 'the Man with no Name'. He did everything he could to outmaneouver the opposition (on both sides) and still manage to come out on top. As far as westerns - 'Spaghetti Westerns' that is -it's got to be ...  Read the complete review