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A Fistful of Dollars

A Fistful of Dollars

List Price: $14.95
Your Price: $11.96
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Leone and Eastwood's 'squintacular' spaghetti first!
Review: You can still purchase both Sister Act movies, yet as of this review, Fistful of Dollars is still unavailable to the quality movie buying public. Oh well, we've still got Whoopi! Give me a break. One could only dream that it was Whoopi or any of her "nun too funny" cohorts who had laughed in Clint's face when he asked for an apology to his mule. Undoubtedly they would have met with the same fate that befell those five (not four!) snickering cowpokes, and anyone else who was foolish enough to cross paths with "The Man With No Name" in the first of the Leone "Dollars" trilogy. Contemporary audiences who fall over themselves for a chance to watch a Tarantino flick may first wish to view one of these masterpieces for an original treat in violence, humor, and style. While they're at it, they might as well check out the mesmerizing original score by renowned film composer Ennio Morricone. The film that catapulted Eastwood to international superstardom still stands as a visionary masterpiece, and patterned many an Eastwood character to follow. So on May 4th, ride, don't walk to your local video retailer (or amazon.com) and pick up a copy of this five-squint flick!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Clint Eastwood's "man with no name"
Review: The film that catapulted Clint Eastwood to worldwide fame is a western classic and an enjoyable adventure, a European oater that packs a wallop. The dialogue is spare, the dubbing leaves a lot to be desired and the plot of feuding families here is a bit stilted and contrived but the story has pace and excitement, plenty of gun-play and Eastwood's lighting-fast draw. The rugged scenery of southern Spain adds to the film's beauty and there's a nice build-up towards the explosive climax when Eastwood's "man with no name" reappears to settle old scores. This western makes use of sweaty close-up shots, gritty facial expressions and has large doses of violence that were not often seen in oaters. Ennio Morricone's music score is a flavorful accompaniment to the movie and is a departure from the traditional music cues that were used in western films. This picture raised the bar for the many "spaghetti westerns" that followed during the next few years.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Good Movie Bad Dvd
Review: This is in my opinion the best in the man with no name series.
But The good, the bad, and the ugly got the animorphic widescreen extended treatment. This movie deserves to get better treatment on dvd, for Eastwood fans. Heck, the whole trilogy could use an overhaul and then the lousy minimal box set they already put out would be obsolete. The second film For a Few Dollars More also deserves to be remastered. I don't care what people say for me clint was the best of the gunslingers in the history of hollywood, (move over john wayne) and made the best westerns, other than John Ford's Masterpiece stagecouch.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A classic spaghetti western!
Review: I am a fan of Clint Eastwood and I really liked this movie. The story is based on the samurai film by Akiro Kurosawa, "Yojimbo," which was adapted as a Western and made into this movie. Eastwood plays a lone gunfighter/bounty hunter who gets involved in a dispute between two warring families and plays both sides for his own personal gain. The bad guys are great, especially Gian Maria Volonte, as the main villain. The last fifteen minutes are really classic, in the climactic showtown between the Man with No Name and the villains. The music by Ennio Morricone is also great. The only drawback of this movie is that the gun battles are rather cartoonish and there is no sign of blood on the victims who are shot.

That aside, I enjoyed this movie. If you are a fan of Westerns and of Clint Eastwood, you would really like this movie. This is the first of the "Man with No Name" trilogy.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: WAIT.
Review: I just found out that this, along with For A Few Dollars More are being remastered just like that awesome The Good, The Bad and The Ugly box set that came out last year. Here are the special features that this baby'll have:

A Fistful of Dollars: Special Edition

-Fully Restored Version
-Audio Commentary
-A New Kind of Hero - Documentary
-A Few Weeks Off in Spain - Interview with Clint Eastwood
-Cinque Voci
-Featurette
-Not Ready for Primetime - Featurette
-Additional Scene - The Network Prologue
-Restoration, Italian Style
-Double Bill Trailer for A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More
-Radio Spots
-Collector's Gallery

My 3 star rating isn't for the movie, but for the dvd. I mean, I've watched this one, and it had no real special features, and the print was pretty horrible. They said if sales for the remastered GBU were good enough, the two prequels would get the same treatment. It's good to see they lived up to their word. When do these new editions come out? April 18th in Europe, summer over here. Keep waiting. It'll be worth it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: a classic
Review: now im in my late 20s suddenly all those westerns i hated watching with my grandpa seem like the greatest movies ever made i find myself sitting in my chair having a beer watching westerns during the day this like hang em high is a classic eastwood western and belongs in your collection understood punk?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Totally Sweet Spaghetti Western!!
Review: I was going to quote part of Clint's famous monologue about his mule, but it looks like someone already did. Anyway this movie, like all of Clint's "Man with no name" Trilogy spaghetti westerns is totally sweet. I like the way they develop characters-two memorable supporting characters in this movie are the tavern owner and the coffin maker, and of course Clint and the bad guy Ramone Rojo(played by Gian Maria Volonte) are totally sweet too. The plot of this movie is also well developed, it really has a nice build up to the climax. Anyway you don't have to take my word for it, you should watch it yourself!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "See my mule don't like people laughin'"
Review: For any Spag-western fan it's a hard choice between the best film in the Leone/Eastwood trilogy. Most casual fans go for the epic final chapter, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, but I for one would choose this classic. Though it's pretty much the same story as Yojimbo, I think the border-town of the wild west is a much better setting. This movie is so great for a few reasons:
1. The cinematography is awesome, it pioneered the close-up, making each face a western landscape in itself.
2. Eastwood. This movie made him an international star, and for good reason. He puts a lot of humor into the character with his few lines, the opening scene where Clint references his mule is so weird that is's one of the funniest scenes in cinema.
3. The action is fast and furious, and the gun-slinging is unrivled, this is also the first appearence of Clint's famous poncho, which really makes him mysterious and menacing in the final gundown.
*Gian Maria Volonte is outstanding as the villain, although he's even better as the pot smoking lunatic in For A Few Dollars More

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Fistful of Dollars
Review: The greatest western of all time (or one of them)! Clint is at his baddest-cool in this great tale of double crossing, "I'm gonna kick your ass" pistolero shootout. The first scene with the sensitive mule is one for the books!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Man With No Name Rides Into Hollywood On A Dark Mule
Review: The man with no name rides into town on his mule in Sergio Leone's first installment of 'The Man With No Name' trilogy. Making few distinctions between his protagonists and antagonists, Leone's 1964 western brings a new vision of the Wild West as a lawless place of only bandits and victims instead of one where the good old sheriff or cavalry always saves the day.

In this film, Joe Manco a.k.a. The Man With No Name (Clint Eastwood) comes to the town of San Miguel to find it split between two family factions. On one side is the arms-smuggling Baxter family while on the other are the Rojo brothers who deal with whiskey. Both clans are feuding and both could use a good gunslinger to clean things up. Is the new stranger with the fast draw a good man for the job? Although our anonymous cowboy has a conscience after all, and would really like to see the crime families go, there's no reason for him not to make a little money on the side while he's at it. The Rojos' leading brother Ramon (Gian Maria Volonté), who always shoots for the heart with his Winchester lever-action, knows that Clint's up to no good and wants to get rid of him pronto. How will our shady hero deal with this dilemma?

As with his three subsequent westerns, Leone brings the audience into a very different Far West from the one most audiences were familiar with in films such as 'Stagecoach' or 'Fort Apache'. Here our hero is just slightly less shady than his antagonists: he rarely starts fights but he's always the one who finishes them. He has no moral reservations about working for criminals as long as he brings them down in the end. The badlands theme is reinforced by the trademark shootout scenes brought to life with Morricone's legendary music. Instead of presenting the armed confrontations as a climaxing filler to officially continue the plot or end a story, Leone turns the whole shootout scenes into a conscious ritual of death. Through Morricone's brilliant brass symphonic arrangements which are similar to music one hears at a bullfight: Leone seems to present hero as the matador and his victims as the bulls. The close shots of the twitching eyes, dripping sweat, and agitated hands hovering over the grip of a Colt single-action .45-long, parallel the images of a bull who, with a heavy breath, scrapes his front hooves and prepares for his final charge against the sword-wielding matador.

This is one of the greatest westerns to be made and was Clint Eastwood's rise to fame as an actor. Leone's unique vision of the Wild West as being a badland of amoral characters is amplified by his unique vision of the final gunfight. Instead of being a brief shootout to end the story, Leone turns these scene into stories of their own. This is another western that should be in every western lover's collection.


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