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Clint Eastwood, Marianne Koch, Gian Maria Volonté, Wolfgang Lukschy, Mario Brega ... see more see more... , Carla Calo , Antonio Prieto , Joseph Egger , Benito Stefanelli , José Calvo , Margarita Lozano , Sieghardt Rupp , Aldo Sambrell , Raf Baldassarre , Bruno Carotenuto , Daniel Martin

By the time Sergio Leone made this film, Italians had already produced about 20 films ironically labelled "spaghetti westerns." Leone approached the genre with great love and humor. Although the plot ... read more read more...was admittedly borrowed from Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo (1961), Leone managed to create a work of his own that would serve as a model for many films to come. Clint Eastwood plays a cynical gunfighter who comes to a small border town and offers his services to two rivaling gangs. Neither gang is aware of his double play, and each thinks it is using him, but the stranger will outwit them both. The picture was the first installment in a cycle commonly known as the "Dollars" trilogy. Later, United Artists, who distributed it in the U.S., coined another term for it: the "Man With No Name" trilogy. While not as impressive as its follow-ups For a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966), A Fistful of Dollars contains all of Leone's eventual trademarks: taciturn characters, precise framing, extreme close-ups, and the haunting music of Ennio Morricone. Not released in the U.S. until 1967 due to copyright problems, the film was decisive in both Clint Eastwood's career and the recognition of the Italian western. ~ Yuri German, Rovi

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43 critics

R, 1 hr. 41 min.

Directed by: Sergio Leone

Release Date: September 12, 1964

Keywords: western

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DVD Release Date: June 19, 2001

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Stats: 3,497 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (3,497)

  • brooklynspo
    May 1, 2007
    brooklynspo
    Not quite up to its reputation, if only because Eastwood & Leone went on to make better.

    All the elements are here though - cool as fuck Clint w/ his black stub cigar and his inscrutable squint - Morricone's wonderfully stark music and Leone's devastating widescreen compositio... read morens. Above all this may be the first western without a white hat It's greed, violence and death, played out in the mythic filthy Texas desert.
  • fb1664868775
    March 4, 2012
    fb1664868775
    Leone created one of the most iconic films in history with his retelling of Yojimbo. Clint Eastwood shines and Morricone's scores is like a cinematic kick to the gut.
  • garyX
    February 22, 2012
    garyX
    The introduction of the iconic man with no name saw Clint Eastwood catapulted to international stardom in this remake of Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece Yojimbo. Of course there's a certain irony in the fact that an Italian remake of a Japanese film shot in Spain would be the birth ... read moreof the modern western, but the elements combine to fit the setting of the old west perfectly. The script has taken rather a trim in comparison, this film concentrating on machismo and gunplay rather than the more artful and character driven original; the result is that Eastwood's gunslinger comes across as more of a cynical operator than Mifune's aimless but moralistic samurai, and the build up has a brisk, almost rushed feel about it. But this film is all about the showdown at the end which, combined with Morricone's unforgettable score, is classic Leone.
  • joelkelly319
    January 21, 2012
    joelkelly319
    TThe first in Sergio Leones Dollars Trilogy stars Clint Eastwood as the morally ambiguous man without a name, who rides up into a town where 2 conflicting families reside. Seeing an opportunity, the lone gunman decides to play the families against each other for personal gain. Bu... read moret soon all hell breaks loose, and the hero (or anti-hero) must use all his wits to survive. Harrowingly brutal, and darkly atmospheric, Fistful is nothing short of a riveting masterpiece. Here we see Leones brilliant Directing style, in a tense and engaging story. Throw in Clint Eastwoods tough as nails performance, coupled with an exciting score by the great Ennio Morricone, and this film becomes a thing of beauty.
  • SajinPA
    May 3, 2011
    SajinPA
    I cant believe that it took me this long to watch the Dollar series. Has always been a fan of the Ennio Morricone tunes, the very same reason why last weekend, just for a change more than anything else, I decided to give the western sphagetti a try.
    I was really astonished how ... read moretimeless the movie is. Even after 50 years, it still is mesmerizing & super-cool.
  • FilmFanatik
    April 18, 2011
    FilmFanatik
    Excellent as always from Eastwood/Leone. A slightly compacted version of the original story from Yojimbo (or rather more straightforward), but marvelously told.
  • TheGame90
    November 12, 2010
    TheGame90
    Yeah it's good. But there's still some parts to work more on. Which he did...
  • TheDudeLebowski65
    September 29, 2010
    TheDudeLebowski65
    The first of the dollars trilogy directed by maestro Sergio Leone was a taste of what was to come. As Sergio Leone's first Western film, A fistful Of Dollars elevated the popularity of Spaghetti Westerns and also it broke new ground in the genre. As I've said in many of my review... read mores on Sergio Leone's Epics, his Westerns tend to drastically depart from the traditional American Western. A fistful Of Dollars looks nasty, ugly and gritty; the way the old West is supposed to look like. For me, thats one of the things I've always loved about Sergio Leone's work, his attention to detail, his flair for authenticity. Leone gave us a small taste with Dollars. But with every Western he made, he gradually improved and he managed to create two Western epics thats have yet to be surpassed in any way. A Fistful Of Dollars is the first collaboration between Eastwood and Leone. Clint Eastwood plays the man with no name a gunfighter who arrives in a town torn apart by a rivalry witrh two families. The Man With No Name plays a game of cat and mouse with the two rivaling families, and quickly put them against each other. A Fistful Of Dollars is one of Sergio Leone's earliest achievements, and it shows a director with a vision. Leone was just getting warmed up and A Fistful Of Dollars is a tremendous film from Leone and is very entertaining. The best thing about the film is probably the way the violence plays out, it's not a typical Western, and Sergio Leone always tended to make his films violent but in context with the story. He used it to his own advantage and always came out on top in regards to the Western genre. That was one of the many aspects as to why the Spaghetti Westerns were better than the American Westerns. A Fistful Of Dollars is a a must see if you love Western films, the film contains some great gun fight, a phenomenal score by Ennio Moriconne and terrific acting from the cast. Though not as grand as The Good, The Bad and The Ugly or Once Upon A Time In The West, A Fistful Of Dollars shows what Sergio Leone was later capable of. Even in this early Spaghetti Western, Leone was able to captivate the audience with a simple, but very engrossing story. Due to Leone's Genius, Dollars is a worthy viewing experience and is the start to some of the greatest Western films ever made.
  • danperry17
    September 25, 2010
    danperry17
    The beginning of Eastwood's type: the Man with No Name, the operator, who drifts into town, plays the situation out to his advantage and then drifts out. This was my first experience with the Spaghetti Western, and I found that the story was kind of sloppy and the acting was diff... read moreicult - did anyone other than Eastwood speak English? - but the colours made the visuals magical in places, outdone only by a spectacular Morricone score. This film makes Tarantino make sense, and I'm sure the rest of the trilogy will only prove that claim. I'm excited to find out.
  • LorenzoVonMatterhorn
    May 5, 2010
    LorenzoVonMatterhorn
    "When a man with .45 meets a man with a rifle, you said, the man with a pistol's a dead man. Let's see if that's true. Go ahead, load up and shoot."

    A wandering gunfighter plays two rival families against each other in a town torn apart by greed, pride, and revenge.

    ... read morenter>REVIEW
    The first of Sergio Leone's "Nameless Man" series started with a bang in 1964 with "A Fistful of Dollars". Clint Eastwood finally got his big break in the Italian Cinema here as a drifter who happens along a small Mexican village which has been torn apart by two criminal families (one led by Gian Maria Volonte and the other by Wolfgang Lukschy). Of course it is up to Eastwood to put the families against one another, save the townspeople and also make a little money in the process. The plot is pretty simple, but the film is done so well by Leone that its numerous shortcomings can be overlooked. "A Fistful of Dollars" was proof that the Western could go into a dark place where violence and adult situations are always constants.

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Critic Reviews

May 23, 2011
TIME Magazine

Once in a great while a western comes along that breaks new ground and becomes a classic of the genre. Full Review

Variety Staff
March 26, 2009
Variety Staff, Variety

This is a hard-hitting item, ably directed, splendidly lensed, neatly acted, which has all the ingredients wanted by action fans and then some. Full Review

Colin Covert
June 22, 2006
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune

From Clint Eastwood's iconic performance to Ennio Morricone's unforgettable (and much-parodied) musical score, A Fistful of Dollars (****) took the western down trails it had never explored.

Bosley Crowther
May 9, 2005
Bosley Crowther, New York Times

Egregiously synthetic but engrossingly morbid, violent film. Full Review

James Berardinelli
January 1, 2000
James Berardinelli, ReelViews

Really little more than a series of loosely connected shoot-outs -- but, as Sergio Leone proved, there can be a lot of fun in that. Full Review

James Plath
December 29, 2011
James Plath, Movie Metropolis

Westerns were never the same after Sergio Leone. Full Review

Tim Brayton
August 20, 2011
Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy

The moment where Sergio Leone, anonymous costume drama hack turned into Sergio Leone, keen stylist and poet of cruelty. Full Review

Charles Cassady
December 14, 2010
Charles Cassady, Common Sense Media

Guns galore in intro "spaghetti Western" serving. Full Review

Scott Nash
July 12, 2010
Scott Nash, Three Movie Buffs

What Leone does with this movie is boil the Western down to its very essence, removing all the extraneous parts. Full Review

Dan Jardine
December 31, 2009
Dan Jardine, Cinemania

A deliciously ripe spaghetti western Full Review

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    • The Man with No Name: Don Miguel Roho...I want to talk to you! Don Miguel, I hear you're hiring on men. Well, I just may be available. I gotta tell you before you hire me, I don't work cheap!
    • The Man with No Name: [After same gunfight, to the undertaker] My mistake: four coffins.
    • The Man with No Name: Aim for the heart, Ramon.
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