Customer Reviews

Brilliant western - By: Chris Wood, 04 Nov 2008
This is the first Spaghetti western & a superb film. Both Clint Eastwood & Sergio Leone are on top form & the storyline, dialogue & action are tremendous.

A classic.

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A cheap budget movie that launched a classic trilogy - By: LXIX, 15 Oct 2008
A Fistful of Dollars was made on a shoestring budget of $200,000. Clint Eastwood even bought his own black jeans & poncho & brought them over from the US to the filmsetin Almeria, Spain.

Clint rides into a dusty frontier town, San Miguel, where life is cheap. Situated just over the border inside Mexico, the town is a focus for smuggling & is run by 2 families - the Rojos (Mexicans) & the Baxters (Americans).

When a gold heist takes place at the expense of regular US & Mexican soldiers, the softly spoken gunfighter succeedsin playing each family against each other - while at the same time building up his financesin return for information.

This movie is a dark, minimalist film. Everything from the decor to the stoney desert is bleak & spartan. There's also little interaction with others apart from the feuding families, the owner of the empty bar & the (permanently busy) undertaker.

A Fistful of dollars is not particularly violent. Clint guns downs 13 bad guysin total but there's no blood & the violence is actually cartoonesque at times.

Overall, great music, a good concept & lots of action crammed into what is actually a rather short film (96 minutes).

The twin-pack DVD contains a raft of great extras if you're an enthusiast of the Sergio Leone films & this genre.

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The film that started it all... - By: Gail Parnell, 25 Jun 2007
Fistfull of Dollars, introduced us to Sergio Leone's masterpiece that were Spaghetti Westerns. It also made clint Eastwood a star, & would lead to two extremely successful follow ups, For a Few Dollars More, & The Good, the Bad & the Ugly.

It introduced the world to Sergio Leone's sharp directing & 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 climaxesin 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 & the third film, the sprawling epic which was The Good the Bad & the Ugly.

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

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

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A Fist full of Talent - By: S J Buck, 13 Nov 2006
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 actorsin front of him. But Eastwood was prepared to work considerably cheaper than these people & made the movie for $15,000.

All of this & more is revealedin 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 & Eastwood.

I haven't even mentioned disc 2, well this contains documentaries & 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!

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Glorious - By: , 13 Apr 2005
This film was Leone's first big film, & 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) & has had the similarly excellent remastering that The Good, the Bad & the Ugly got. The extras are as goodin quality as the latter's, but what this film is really about is the taut tension, the despicable villains & of course the legendary Clint Eastwood as The Man With No Name. Great dialogue that is often darkly humorous (the mule shootout for example) & 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 fansin general, if you've ever seen a heavily built up gunfight (Dirty Harry, any John Woo film, & especially any Tarantino film) chances are the director has been heavily influenced by Leone's legacy to movies. Every red-blooded male NEEDS this filmin their collection along with the other Dollar films that were undoubtedly Leone & arguably Eastwood's best work.