580. A Fistful Of Dollars (1964)

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Gian Maria Volonté, Marianne Koch

Director: Sergio Leone

Running Time: 99 mins

A Fistful Of Dollars (Per un pugno di dollari) is an Italian film about a lone stranger who arrives on a small Mexican border town, with the ambition of making a bit of money as a shipment of gold comes through the village, by playing the two warring families of the town against each other.

This may be genesis for a classic genre, but unfortunately, I’ve never been a big fan of spaghetti westerns. If they’re your thing, this is would be fantastic, being the starting point of Sergio Leone’s trilogy that created some of the most iconic films in history.

And one of those icons is Clint Eastwood’s The Man With No Name. In comparison to his very silent performance in The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, he’s a lot more talkative and active in this film, which does help, as you do feel a lot more support for him, which does, at points, make this quite an intriguing story.

However, what I really didn’t like about this film was just how slow, quiet and tiring it was to watch. There were various flashpoints of action and drama, which were extremely exciting to watch, however the majority of the film is all about a man walking around trying to do over someone or other in the slowest possible way.

Again, that is a hallmark of Leone’s style of filmmaking, and is now iconic for its influence over hundreds of films after it, however I felt that it was on the whole very dull and difficult to be really intrigued in, which had a significant effect on how entertaining it was to watch.

Despite that, I do commend Leone’s direction, Eastwood’s brilliant acting, a stunning score behind, and I would strongly recommend this film if you are a fan of the spaghetti western genre. However, seeing as I’m not, this gets a 7.0.