A Fistful Of Dollars (again)

[Jed Cooper]

I recently watched A Fistful Of Dollars again.  It was very early into viewing where I was thinking to myself (again), "Man, this is a GREAT movie!". 

This western is one of a handful that made a huge impression on me when I first saw it years ago as a teenager.  After seeing it for the first time, I became a fan and wanted more.  Good thing there was!  As much as I enjoy the sequels, this one is my favorite out of the "Leone 3". 

It's great seeing Eastwood's character come back at the end of the film, in a cloud of smoke, to prove Ramon's theory wrong about "the man with the pistol will be a dead man", when meeting up with a man with a rifle.  The look on Ramon's face when he see's "Joe" get up after shooting him is one of the best moments in the film.

I thought I'd take a moment and unashamedly root for my all-time favorite Eastwood movie.

[Matt]

I love it too. It's my least favorite of the 3 Eastwood/Leone films, but... it's way up there with my favorite movies of all time, and high on my "Clint Best Of" list.

What amazes me so much about this film is that Clint was SO COOL and so CONFIDENT for it being his first leading role. If you go back to a few episodes of Rawhide and compare Rowdy to "Joe".... that's an amazing transformation! Who could have seen that coming that had watched him in Rawhide?

Clint created The Man With No Name character, and after A Fistful of Dollars, he'd not only bring parts of that character with him in For a Few Dollars More and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, but in almost every role he performed since--and not just the Westerns... Harry Callahan is comparable to a present-day "Joe".

A Fistful of Dollars was the movie that started everything--the 40+ year career of one of Hollywood's greatest actors, as well as the start of Sergio Leone's successful directing career and Ennio Morricone's absolutely magnificent and profuse composing career.

Eastwood and Volonte put in extraordinary performances, but the magic comes from the combination of them together with Leone behind the camera, and the beautiful and exciting Morricone score. And... remarkably, the entire film was made on a budget of only $200,000. It doesn't look like a low-budget film at all. So much energy, love and passion is in this film, that it never grows old or weary. It's fantastic. 

[mcbamm]

Hi, new to this site . i admire the fact that no body has really made a movie that outshines any of ce's westerns.

[Phantomstranger]

One of the great western classics of all time. In fact...if you'll excuse me I'm going to go and put the tape on  and watch it again. see you later everyone

[Jed Cooper]

 

One of the great western classics of all time. In fact...if you'll excuse me I'm going to go and put the tape on  and watch it again. see you later everyone

[Patrick Hyde]

I only saw this movie for the first time recently on TNT, and I absolutely loved it. Havent seen many of Clint's movies and have been trying to catch up, so the other day when I saw on the TV Guide channel that this was about to start I didn't have anything better to do, so I tuned in. Glad I did because this is probably up there on my top movies of all time now. Still need to see the other two, though. Looking forward to them greatly.

[KC]

Welcome to the wonderful world of Sergio Leone ... and Clint Eastwood, Patrick!