A Fistful of Dollars Review

A Fistful of Dollars is a 1964 Spaghetti Western written and directed by Sergio Leone and cowritten by Adriano Bolzoni/Mark Lowell/Víctor Andrés Catena/Fernando Di Leo/Duccio Tessari/Jaime Comas Gil. The film is the first installment in what has become known as The Dollars Trilogy, though it was intended to only be a stand alone film. Though it was received negatively by critics upon its initial release, the film has since become viewed as a definitive work of the Western genre.



Story

A mysterious Stranger (Clint Eastwood) wanders into a town in the midst of a war between two rival groups: a band of outlaws lead by two brothers and the family of the Sheriff. Thinking that he can make some profit off this battle, he starts playing both sides in the name of money and survival.



The first thing I should note is that unlike The Good, the Bad and the Ugly which had some swipes in the direction of anti-war messaging, this movie doesn't really have its eye on anything higher than to briefly entertain the audience. It doesn't have anything in the way of commentary as far as I can tell, but then again I don't really know much about the 60s, so I couldn't tell you if there's some hidden message I'm just not seeing.



The character of the Stranger (who would be renamed for each film in the trilogy) would normally be kind of bland. He's a gritty, jaded loner who has a voice like he tried to inhale a dog brush. However, I give it leeway because 1) I figure that this was probably before that cliché became popular and 2) he comes off more as an archetype than a cliché. He's a culmination of every out for himself gruff cowboy with a heart of gold from every Western you've ever seen and he's kind of endearing for it. It also helps that they don't try to force him to be a gritty hero like Batman or your standard video game protagonist and let him slip comfortably into the role of anti-hero. He really is in the middle of this conflict just to get more money rather than for the sake of saving people, though he does occasionally perform a heroic act. The other characters are fine, but it really comes down to the actors which I'll talk about later.



One of the many aspects of film Leone excels at is pacing. He has a talent for building up moments of tension, dragging out that moment of tension for as long as he can and then having everything explode into a satisfying barrage of gunfire. He does this through extremely slow pacing not just throughout the whole movie but within the scenes themselves.



Another thing I love is what Leone does with the script. Even though the dialogue is pretty naturally written and there are some great one-liners from Eastwood, the film doesn't rely wholly on the script to carry the film like so many other films do nowadays. A lot of the storytelling is done through the cinematography and the acting, which I really appreciate. You could turn the film on mute and still have a generally good idea of what's going on in the story. This is exactly what films are supposed to do, being a visual medium, but for some reason rarely attempt. They just let dialogue do all the storytelling for the camera.



Technical

Just like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly this film displays Leone's considerable talents as a technician, particularly with the cinematography. As discussed before, the film largely uses the camera to tell the story. There are several great point of view shots that allow us to see the world through the eyes of one character or another and closeups are mercifully kept to moments when they're absolutely needed to either convey an intense emotion or draw the audience's attention to something important instead of, you know, constantly zooming in on the actors' faces even when all they're doing is having a conversation?



The editing also works with the cinematography really well, especially when the scene is building up to a gunfight. They'll start the scene with a wide or medium shot showing us where all the characters are, then slowly but surely get closer to the main characters in the scene with every cut. This helps ramp up the intensity and also acts as a kind of countdown, with each cut being a ticking on the clock to when the guns start going off.



And when the guns do go off it's pretty well handled stuff. There're no fast cuts or elaborate choreography since this was the 60s where you couldn't generate much audience adrenaline unless you had $15 million, a huge sound stage and a couple of chariots to spare, but it gets the job done and the main point of the gun fight scenes isn't really to just be their for their own sakes. They're story telling devices, used to show how strong or skilled the characters are at fighting so we worry for the Stranger's safety during the final standoff.



The film was originally shot with the actors speaking Italian, with the lines being dubbed for the American release. While their mismatched mouth movements can be distracting at times, it doesn't take away from the overall experience.



The actors are half the reason the characters of the film work at all. Everybody brings a lot of otherwise lacking personality to their respective roles and for his first lead performances Eastwood does a remarkable job slipping into his character.



Summary: A Fistful of Dollars is an enjoyable Western and might even be preferable if like me you felt like Good/Bad/Ugly dragged for a bit too long. It's a great piece of film and an all around great time.