Movie #258 A Fist Full of Dollars *1964*

Prepare yourself for a shocking post.  I have never seen any of the Sergio Leone / Clint Eastwood spaghetti western films.  That is to say that I have never seen any all the way through or never seen them with a critical eye.  Surprised?  I feel like I know almost everything about them.  They are as ingrained in the American psyche as the Hula Hoop.  They are immediate and easy icons in an industry that struggles so diligently to create icons. 

First off you notice the legendary score from Ennio Morricone.  This score has been borrowed, sampled and flat out stolen hundreds of times for different films and other forms of media.  Then you see Eastwood in silhouette.  Tall and thin.  He is as gruff as they come.  Refereed to mainly as "The American" Eastwood in this film is the only competition John Wayne has for the iconic looking American cowboy.  From this point on the film deals with Eastwood as a stranger to a town of dueling families.  Neither with much of a morale compass.  Eastwood begins playing one family against the other in an attempt to loot both groups of their cash.  In doing so he does make money, but at the cost of a lot of people.

This is a retelling of a Kurosawa film called Yojimbo.  Second revel, I have never seen that movie!  There is only so much time in a day to watch movies.


My third and final confessional...I didn't love this movie.  If you were placing money on weather I would like a western based on a Kurosawa film, I would say that it would be a pretty safe bet.  However I am a fan of creative camera work and complex storytelling.  This film didn't strive for this.  There are a few set up's that drew my attention, but for the most part I found the camera work very utilitarian.  And the script was mostly straight forward.  The only twist in the film I felt was somewhat unearned.  I understand that the stranger isn't supposed to "make friends", but the lack of relationship between the characters caused me not to full understand the motives of those characters.  Maybe that is the point, but I found it distracting.

Woody Allen might enjoy this review.  His current film is all about the dangers of nostalgia.  The music and Eastwood's character will be in the popular lexicon most likely forever.  But I don't fully understand why.  I have seen far better Westerns in the same vein.

I give A Fist Full of Dollars ★★★1/2.