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By Sunil Dhokia Iconic, entertaining and the foundations of the spaghetti western genre, A Fistful of Dollars is filmmaking at its finest thanks to the one to two combinations of Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood. What's the Movie About? Directed by Sergio Leone, A Fistful of Dollars (1964) is a spaghetti western movie that follows the story of 'The Man With No Name' (Clint Eastwood), who enters the village of San Miguel at a time when a struggle for power ensues between the Rojo Brothers (Gian Maria Volonté, Sieghardt Rupp and Antonio Prieto) and Sheriff John Baxter (Wolfgang Lukschy). The unidentified man then looks to exploit this long-standing feud by providing false information to both parties to his advantage. Positives The economic storytelling from Sergio Leone, the beginning of Clint Eastwood's acting stardom, iconic action set-pieces and a musical score for the ages result in a classic movie-going experience: Direction In a movie where the runtime is a mere 99 minutes, Sergio Leone ensures that the story moves along at a brisk pace so that we get enough information to appreciate where the plot and characters are heading. The use of extreme close-up shots in several key scenes, particularly the climactic scene is used to great effect here. Whether it's capturing 'The Man With No Name's' cool and stoic qualities under pressure or the sense of dread and fear that the Rojo brothers instil in their village, Sergio Leone deploys the show it not tell it technique. For younger audience members, if you can overlook the obvious audio dubbing on the part of several actors' dialogue throughout the movie, then you can behold a movie that is masterfully crafted and executed from start to finish. Acting and Characters If there was ever a role that was built with a specific actor in mind, none comes to mind more so than Clint Eastwood in the role of 'The Man With No Name'. Clint Eastwood imbues the character with such conviction that you're immediately fascinated with his journey and where he will go next. By not including a back-story for 'The Man With No Name' means that the character carries no baggage and that his motivations and actions are driven only by the story at hand. The story puts the character through his paces by presenting him with real threats in the form of the Rojo Brothers. This ensures that he feels vulnerable at times which creates a lack of predictability in whether he will make it out alive or not. Action The opening and final action scenes in the movie are some of the best examples of how to create tension and conflict without overwhelming the audience with an abundance of characters and locations. The combination of wide and close-up shots from Sergio Leone and cinematographer Massimo Dallamano ensures that we feel every bullet, wound and moment of defeat that is captured wonderfully on-screen for us to savour up. Music It seems there are no other superlatives to describe the iconic score from Ennio Morricone. As the movie's title theme (see OST suite below) plays over the animated opening credits, you're immediately transported into a musical experience that is unlike anything you've heard before. Ennio Morricone practically wrote the rulebook on how to craft the definitive Western score that has been replicated in countless movies and other mediums such as T.V shows and video games but never duplicated. The combination of whistles, bells and a guitar among other instrumentation result in a score that is legendary and among the best the movie industry has to offer, let alone the Western genre. Summary
With an economic sense of storytelling combined with masterful direction from Sergio Leone, a legendary performance from Clint Eastwood, some of the most iconic action scenes of all-time and a musical score that is among the greatest ever produced, A Fistful of Dollars is worthy of your time and demands your attention in the best way possible. Verdict on the Movie 10 out of 10 Your Thoughts What are your thoughts on A Fistful of Dollars? Do you agree that it's a perfect Western movie and if not, what other Western movies do you prefer instead? Comment below as I'd love to hear your thoughts. Images above and below belong to Unidis and any other respective owners. All YouTube content above and their copyright belong to Imperial Music Group and any other respective owners. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.
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About MeMy name is Sunil Dhokia, I'm a movie fanatic and love all things Hollywood. Blog Archives
June 2020
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