A Fistful of Dollars
San Miguel, a dusty desert town on the frontier of America and Mexico, fought over by two powerful families, the Rojo brothers, Don Miguel, Esteban and Ramón, and that of John Baxter, the sheriff, ostensibly representing the law but an arms dealer only marginally less ruthless and corrupt than the smugglers terrorising the local population and their children with impunity.
Into this comes a newcomer, a witness, silent, watching, measuring what is before him then taking decisive action with his gun, drawing attention to himself and establishing that the balance of terror between the two sides is going to shift, offering his skills as a quick draw to both sides then playing them against each other, causing them to lose face and numbers while the stranger stays one step ahead.
Already a veteran of ten films shot in his native America, rising from an uncredited bit player to supporting roles, Clint Eastwood’s first leading role was an Italian-Spanish-German co-production shot largely in the Province of Almería in south east Spain by Italian director Sergio Leone, the script credited to eight writers and also unofficially inspired by Yojimbo, Akira Kurosawa’s 1961 epic of a lone samurai.
Originally called Il Magnifico Straniero (The Magnificent Stranger) before becoming Per un pugno di dollari (A Fistful of Dollars), released in 1964 in Italy, it was followed by two sequels, Per qualche dollaro in più (For a Few Dollars More) in 1965 and Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) in 1966, released as a trilogy in America in January, May and December of 1967, making Eastwood a star and prompting a successful lawsuit from Kurosawa.
Iconic from the opening credits designed by Iginio Lardani accompanied by Ennio Morricone’s theme, gunshots, whistles, galloping horses and choral voices under the sun, the opening scenes are told almost without dialogue, the soundtrack and visuals conveying tension, danger, even longing curtailed by the slam of a window shutter before the inevitable confrontation sparks, with momentary freeze-frames emphasising the shifts of power.
Eastwood’s character “the Man with No Name,” he is called Joe by the barkeep Silvanito (Pepe Calvo), the closest thing he has to an ally in San Miguel, though like the others who refer to him as “the Americano” this is likely a placeholder, and nobody asks further, the distance he keeps from the locals deliberate, a man passing through with an immediate purpose but no intention of lingering or forming relations, though he is not a man to walk away until the job is done.
The ”spaghetti Western” regarded at the time as a poor relation of the epics of the fifties, the script, acting and production values place the film as a prize steer among the cattle, none of the ambiguous characters clean though some are obviously dirtier than others, and the scrubby desert, jagged rocks and blue skies a dramatic backdrop, all of it captured in deep focus alternating with tight close-ups, with only occasional day-for-night shots marring an otherwise impeccable illusion.
Arrow in the process of releasing the complete Dollars Trilogy, their new edition of A Fistful of Dollars is a 4K restoration from the original 2-perf Techniscope negative featuring a commentary by Leone biographer Sir Christopher Frayling and a second by film historian Tim Lucas, new and archive interviews with multiple subjects including Eastwood himself and co-star Marianne Koch, restoration and location featurettes, outtakes, galleries and ephemera.
A Fistful of Dollars will be released on Blu-ray and 4K UHD by Arrow Films on Monday 12th May
