Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10353 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-04-18
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL, Special Edition
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 96 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
A Fistful of Dollars launched the spaghetti Western and catapulted Clint Eastwood to stardom. Based on Akira Kurosawa's 1961 samurai picture Yojimbo, it scored a resounding success (in Italy in 1964 and the U.S. in 1967), as did its sequels, 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 movie's refreshing new take on the Western genre. Gone are the pieties about making the streets safe for women and children. Instead it's every man for himself. Striking, too, was a new emphasis on violence, with stylized, almost balletic gunfights and baroque touches such as Eastwood's armoured breastplate. The Dollars films had a marked influence on the Hollywood Western--for example, Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch--but their most enduring legacy is Clint Eastwood himself. --Edward Buscombe

DVD Description
A Fistful of Dollars is the western taken to the extreme, with unremitting violence, gritty realism and tongue-in-cheek humour starring Clint Eastwood\

Synopsis
The first true Spaghetti Western follows the exploits of a nameless drifter (Clint Eastwood) who wanders into a town torn apart by greed, corruption, and revenge. The clever, tough-talking gunslinger then plays the town's two feuding families off each other for his benefit. As members of each family are planted in the ground, the gold in his pockets gets heavier and heavier. This violent remake of Akira Kurosawa's YOJIMBO made Eastwood a star, and sparked two sequels--FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE and THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY--to form what is now referred to as the Man with No Name trilogy. All three films starred Eastwood, featured Ennio Morricone's distinctive musical compositions, and were directed--in a wonderfully gritty style--by Sergio Leone. Although the film was not released in the United States until 1967, it was produced and released internationally in 1964.

Customer Reviews

A Fist full of Talent
This two DVD set is the best version to buy of this film. The remastering/restoration is excellent, so the picture quality is superb. The film itself needs little introduction, it wasn't the first Italian/European western, but it was the first that tried to be different from the standard US western.

Based on Kurosawa's Yojimbo (1961), this is the film that changed Eastwood from a little known American TV star of the early 60's into a movie Icon. Eastwood wasn't the first choice for the part, there were 4 or 5 preferred actors in front of him. But Eastwood was prepared to work considerably cheaper than these people and made the movie for $15,000.

All of this and more is revealed in the excellent commentary by Sir Christopher Frayling on disc 1. Having the commentary makes this version essential as Sir Christopher is THE expert on Leone and Eastwood.

I haven't even mentioned disc 2, well this contains documentaries and the usual stuff you associate with special editions. However there are two reasons to buy this version of the DVD. 1. The Film. 2. The Commentary.
Fabulous!

Glorious
This film was Leone's first big film, and Clint Eastwood's first big screen appearance. To a fan of either this is essential: there is a proper 16:9 widescreen version (unlike the single disc versions) and has had the similarly excellent remastering that The Good, the Bad and the Ugly got. The extras are as good in quality as the latter's, but what this film is really about is the taut tension, the despicable villains and of course the legendary Clint Eastwood as The Man With No Name. Great dialogue that is often darkly humorous (the mule shootout for example) and all backed up by a great score from the legendary Ennio Morricone. To Western fans this is one of the pioneers of the genre. To movie fans in general, if you've ever seen a heavily built up gunfight (Dirty Harry, any John Woo film, and especially any Tarantino film) chances are the director has been heavily influenced by Leone's legacy to movies. Every red-blooded male NEEDS this film in their collection along with the other Dollar films that were undoubtedly Leone and arguably Eastwood's best work.

The film that started it all...
Fistfull of Dollars, introduced us to Sergio Leone's masterpiece that were Spaghetti Westerns. It also made clint Eastwood a star, and would lead to two extremely successful follow ups, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

It introduced the world to Sergio Leone's sharp directing and fondness for extreme close ups, often copied since, but never really bettered.

Clint Eastwood stars as the man with no name, a remake of an old japaneese film called Yojimbo. Clint is perfectly cast as the clever gunslinger as a man of actions rather than words. Here, he plays two gangs off against each other, which all climaxes in a wonderfully memorable scene which reveals the full extent of Clint's cunning.

Deliciously topped off with Ennino Morricone's haunting score, Fistfull of Dollars is a wonderful film, bettered only slightly by its sequal and the third film, the sprawling epic which was The Good the Bad and the Ugly.

If you've seen the other films, it is well worth adding these to your collection, as its Clint in one of his best loved roles, and certainly his most iconic. (Only Dirty Harry would prove to be as equally iconic as the spaghetti western trilogy.)

So add to your collection and relive the golden era of spaghetti westerns at their finest!