Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25703 in DVD
• Released on: 2000-02-07
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 98 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
This is the movie that launched the spaghetti Western and catapulted Clint Eastwood to stardom. Before director Sergio Leone picked him out, Clint had played only a few bit parts in features plus his role as Rowdy Yates in the TV Western series Rawhide. Leone cast him for his stillness and physical presence, famously remarking that when Michelangelo was asked what he had seen in a particular block of marble, he said Moses, but that what he, Leone, saw in Eastwood was just that, a block of marble. Leone also claimed that it was he who gave the character his trademark cigar and poncho, though Eastwood has said he brought his own wardrobe to Italy. Whoever takes credit, A Fistful of Dollars (Per un pugno di dollari in Italian) was an extraordinary success when launched in Italy in 1964. Eastwood had to wait longer for it to be a hit in the USA.

The film was based on Kurosawa's 1961 samurai picture Yojimbo, but Leone had forgotten to clear the copyright. Eventually a deal was done, but A Fistful of Dollars was not released in the USA until 1967. It scored an equally resounding success, as did its sequels in the Dollar Trilogy, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The advertising campaign promoted Eastwood's character, laconic, amoral, dangerous, as The Man with No Name (though in the film he's clearly referred to as Joe), and audiences loved the film's refreshing new take on the Western genre. Gone are the pieties about making the streets safe for women and children (women are virtually absent from the Trilogy). Instead it's every man for himself. Striking too was a new emphasis on violence, with stylised, almost balletic gunfights and baroque touches such as Eastwood's armoured breastplate. The popularity of the Dollars films had a marked influence on the Hollywood Western, for example Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, but its most enduring legacy is Clint Eastwood himself, still in action at the age of 70. --Edward Buscombe

Special Features
2.35 Wide Screen
English
English
Region 2
Mono English
Mono
Interactive Menu Screens
Chapter Search
Original Theatrical Trailer
8 Page Film Guide
Digitally Remastered
Uncut Version
English

Synopsis
The first true spaghetti Western, A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS follows a nameless drifter who plays two feuding families off each other to his own benefit. As members of each family are planted in the ground, the gold in his pocket gets heavier and heavier. This violent remake of Akira Kurosawa's YOJIMBO made Eastwood a star.

Customer Reviews

Classic Clint
Made in 1964, 'A Fistful of Dollars' together with 'For a Few Dollars More' and 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly', introduced a new kind of hero, in a new type of setting. From the moment The Man With No Name rode into the small town of San Miguel on his mule, it was clear to audiences all over the world that a new style of western had been created. Directed by Sergio Leone, and adapted from the samurai film 'Yojimbo', this film would influence generations to come.

Clint Eastwood + Western = Brilliant Film
If you like westerns then there is only one message I need to give you about this film. BUY IT NOW. This film, along with the others in the series ('For a Few Dollars More' and 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'), created a new level of western which has only been matched by a few other classics. Sergio Leone (director) creates a drifter who is one of the most charismatic characters I have ever seen and has selected a perfect cast to compliment an incredible script.

Anyone who sees 'For a Fistful of Dollars' will be unable to deny that Clint Eastwood was born to star in this film. He makes the entire film become not only believable but alive with pure style. The dialogue is excellent and well presented throughout erasing any doubt that this is one of the great westerns of all time. From the moment this film begins till the time the final showdown takes place you won't be able to look away making this film a very worthy buy on DVD.

In conclusion there can only be two reasons to not buy this product. Either you already own the DVD or you intend to buy the box set of the entire series. If neither of these apply then but this film now.

The first spaghetti western..
Although I believe this important film is inferior to the two other movies in Sergio Leone's spaghetti western trilogy,I can still truly respect it's groundbreaking effect on cinema.It made stars out of the director,former tv actor Clint Eastwood and of course Ennio Morricone,one of the most influential men in film soundtracks to this day.Its a basic enough plot-rehashed in thousands of latter day imitations-Clint's anti-hero (the man with no name) rides into town to get rid of a bunch of bad guys. That's when you start to mine gold-featuring unremitting violence for it's era,it is a taut and exciting operation with dark humour-startling shoot-outs directed with style and considerable panache aided by a gritty Eastwood performance,accented by Morricone's haunting,quirky score.