A Fistful of Dollars (Per un pugno di dollari in Italy and officially on-screen in the U.S. and UK as simply Fistful of Dollars) is a 1964 film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood. Released in the United States in 1967, it initiated the popularity of the Spaghetti western film genre. It was followed by For a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), also starring Eastwood. Collectively, the films are commonly known as "The Dollar(s) Trilogy". This film was inspired by the Akira Kurosawa film Yojimbo (1961). In the United States, the United Artists publicity campaign referred to Eastwood's character in all three films as the "Man With No Name". Image File history File links Fistful_Macaroni. ... Sergio Leone (January 3, 1929 – April 30, 1989) was an Italian film director. ... Sergio Leone (January 3, 1929 – April 30, 1989) was an Italian film director. ... This article is about the actor/producer/director. ... Marianne Koch (August 19, 1931-) is a retired German actress of the 1950s and 1960s, best known for her appearances in Spaghetti westerns and adventure films of the 1960s. ... Gian Maria Volonté (April 9, 1933 – December 6, 1994) was an Italian actor. ... Joseph Egger (February 22, 1889 - August 29, 1966) was an Austrian character actor of western films. ... Antonio Prieto was a Chilean actor whose most well-known role was Don Miguel Rojo the eldest of the three bandit Rojo brothers in Sergio Leones A Fistful of Dollars. ... Mario Brega (Rome, March 5, 1923-July 23, 1994) is an Italian actor. ... Stefanelli in the The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in 1966 Benito Stefanelli (1929 - December 1999) was a Italian film actor and stuntman who made over 60 appearances in film between 1955 and 1990. ... Speed Racer and his Mach 5 Speed Racer originally started in Japan as the manga and anime series Mach Go Go Go (マッハGoGoGo) from the legendary anime studio Tatsunoko Productions. ... Ennio Morricone (born November 10, 1928; sometimes also credited as Dan Savio or Leo Nichols) is an Italian composer especially noted for his film scores. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... This article is about the film studio. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Italy. ... is the 344th day of the year (345th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... // Events January 29 - The film Dr. Strangelove is released. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... is the 18th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the 1967 Gregorian calendar. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... For a Few Dollars More (Italian: Per qualche dollaro in più) is a 1965 spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Gian Maria Volonté. German actor Klaus Kinski also plays a supporting role as a secondary villain. ... // Events January 29 - The film Dr. Strangelove is released. ... Sergio Leone (January 3, 1929 – April 30, 1989) was an Italian film director. ... This article is about the actor/producer/director. ... Lauren steiger, born in 1992 at Royal Womens hospital started acting and modelling at the age of 2 and is now currently 15 working in Milan on the catwalks. ... Clint Eastwood as the Man with No Name in A Fistful of Dollars Once Upon a Time in the West, in true Sergio Leone style, ends with an extended shootout scene between Harmonica (Charles Bronson) and Frank (Henry Fonda). ... For a Few Dollars More (Italian: Per qualche dollaro in più) is a 1965 spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Gian Maria Volonté. German actor Klaus Kinski also plays a supporting role as a secondary villain. ... // Events Top grossing films North America Mary Poppins The Sound of Music, starring Julie Andrews Goldfinger My Fair Lady Whats New Pussycat? Shenandoah The Sandpiper Father Goose Academy Awards Best Picture: The Sound of Music - Argyle, Twentieth Century-Fox Best Actor: Lee Marvin - Cat Ballou Best Actress: Julie Christie... The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Italian: ) is a 1966 Italian epic spaghetti Western directed by Sergio Leone, starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach in the title roles. ... // Events Top grossing films North America Thunderball Dr. Zhivago Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? That Darn Cat! The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming Academy Awards Best Picture: A Man for All Seasons - Highland, Columbia Best Actor: Paul Scofield - A Man for All Seasons Best Actress: Elizabeth Taylor... The Dollars Trilogy, also known as The Man with No Name Trilogy, refers to the three Spaghetti Westerns starring Clint Eastwood and directed by Sergio Leone: A Fistful of Dollars (1964) For a Few Dollars More (1965) The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) Although it was not Leone... Akira Kurosawa , 23 March 1910—6 September 1998) was a prominent Japanese film director, film producer, and screenwriter. ... Yojimbo (Japanese: 用心棒, Yōjinbō) is a 1961 jidaigeki (period drama) film by Akira Kurosawa. ... The year 1961 in film involved some significant events. ... This article is about the film studio. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

As this was the first film of the Spaghetti Western genre to be released in the United States,^{[citation needed]} many of the European cast and crew took on American stage names. This included Sergio Leone himself, who was credited as "Bob Robertson".

Fistful of Dollars and its two sequels were shot in the Spanish province Almería. Almería province Almería is a province of southern Spain, in the eastern part of the autonomous community of Andalusia. ...

Plot

A new type of hero to Hollywood cinema, a Man With No Name (Eastwood), arrives at a little Mexican border town named San Miguel. He is quickly introduced to the feud between two mafioso style families bitterly laying claim to the town: the Rojos brothers, consisting of Don Miguel (the eldest and nominally in charge), Esteban (the most head-strong) and Ramón (the most capable and intelligent, played by Gian Maria Volontè, who would go on to reappear in For a Few Dollars More as the psychopathic El Indio), and the Baxter family, of which John Baxter is sheriff of the town. This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Gian Maria Volonté (April 9, 1933 – December 6, 1994) was an Italian actor. ... For a Few Dollars More (Italian: Per qualche dollaro in più) is a 1965 spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Gian Maria Volonté. German actor Klaus Kinski also plays a supporting role as a secondary villain. ...

Morally ambiguous, the Stranger quickly spies an opportunity to make a "fistful of dollars" and decides to play both families against each other, performing tasks for both while at the same time subversively inciting them to fight. Eventually he ends up rescuing Ramón's prisoner and mistress, Marisol (Marianne Koch) and reunites her with her own family. Together again, she and her family are told to flee the town by the stranger.

The Rojos capture and torture the stranger after this betrayal, but the stranger soon escapes. The Rojos brothers set the Baxter stronghold afire, thinking that they are harboring the stranger, and kill the entire household, including John Baxter, his wife, and his son. The Man With No Name escapes with the help of the coffin maker Piripero (Joseph Egger, who would also reappear in the sequel) and returns to town to engage the Rojos and their cronies in a dramatic duel. In doing so he rescues the local innkeeper and his friend, Silvanito. The Man With No Name kills the Rojos, including Ramón, and rides away before the governments of America and Mexico arrive at San Miguel. Joseph Egger (February 22, 1889 - August 29, 1966) was an Austrian character actor of western films. ...

Cast

This article is about the actor/producer/director. ... Marianne Koch (August 19, 1931-) is a retired German actress of the 1950s and 1960s, best known for her appearances in Spaghetti westerns and adventure films of the 1960s. ... Gian Maria Volonté (April 9, 1933 – December 6, 1994) was an Italian actor. ... Joseph Egger (February 22, 1889 - August 29, 1966) was an Austrian character actor of western films. ... Antonio Prieto was a Chilean actor whose most well-known role was Don Miguel Rojo the eldest of the three bandit Rojo brothers in Sergio Leones A Fistful of Dollars. ... Daniel Martín Alexandre commonly known as Dani or Dani Martín , (born 16 September 1981 in Sevilla, Andalusia), is a Spanish footballer. ... Stefanelli in the The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in 1966 Benito Stefanelli (1929 - December 1999) was a Italian film actor and stuntman who made over 60 appearances in film between 1955 and 1990. ... Mario Brega (Rome, March 5, 1923-July 23, 1994) is an Italian actor. ... Stefanelli in the The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in 1966 Alfredo Sanchez Brell (23 February 1937 in Madrid) is a Spanish film actor, director and producer who made over 150 appearances in film between 1961 and 1996. ...

Production

A Fistful of Dollars was at first intended by Leone to reinvent the western genre in Italy. In his opinion the American westerns of the mid to late nineteen-fifties had become stagnant, overly-preachy and unbelievable and because of this Hollywood began to gear down on the production of such films. Leone knew that there was still a significant market in Europe for westerns yet also realised that Italian audiences of the time were beginning to laugh at the stock conventions of both the American westerns and pastiche work of Italian directors hiding under pseudonyms. His approach was to take the grammar of the Italian film and transpose it into a western setting.

A Fistful of Dollars became the first film to exhibit Leone's famously distinctive style of visual direction. This was influenced by both John Ford's cinematic landscaping and the Japanese method of distension, perfected by Akira Kurosawa. Leone wanted an operatic feel to his western and so there are many examples of extreme close-ups on the faces of different characters that function like the arias in a traditional opera. They focus our attention on a single person and that countenance becomes both the landscape and dialogue of the scene. This is quite different to the Hollywood use of faces where the close-up was treated a reaction shot, usually to a piece of dialogue that had just been spoken. Leone's close-ups are more akin to portraits, often lit with Renaissance type lighting effects and are pieces of design in their own right. For other persons named John Ford, see John Ford (disambiguation). ...

Eastwood and Marianne Koch as Marisol

Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...

Music

The film's music was written by Ennio Morricone, credited as Dan Savio. Morricone recalled Leone requesting him to write "Dimitri Tiomkin music" for the film. The trumpet theme is similar to Tiomkin's "DeGuella" theme from Rio Bravo (that was called Un Dollaro D'onore in Italy) whilst the opening title whistling music recalls Tiomkin's use of whistling in his Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Though not used in the completed film, Peter Tevis recorded lyrics to Morricone's theme for the film. As a movie tie-in to the American release, United Artists Records released a different set of lyrics to Morricone's theme called Lonesome One by Little Anthony and the Imperials. Ennio Morricone (born November 10, 1928; sometimes also credited as Dan Savio or Leo Nichols) is an Italian composer especially noted for his film scores. ... Dimitri Zinovievich Tiomkin (Russian: , Dmitrij Zinovevič Tëmkin, somtimes translated as Dmitri Tiomkin) (May 10, 1894 – November 11, 1979) was a film composer and conductor. ... John Wayne as Sheriff John T. Chance in the opening scene. ... Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is a 1957 movie starring Burt Lancaster as Wyatt Earp and Kirk Douglas as Doc Holliday about the famous October 26, 1881 gunfight in Tombstone, Arizona Territory. ... Peter Tevis, born 1937 in California, USA, died 13 September 2006 in Washington, was an American folk singer best remembered for his work on the soundtracks of composer Ennio Morricone. ... A movie tie-in book is a book, frequently a paperback but occasionally a trade paperback or a hardcover, that has a direct relationship to a specific film. ... United Artists Records was a record label founded by United Artists soon after its own founding in 1919 to distribute soundtracks from its movies. ... Little Anthony & The Imperials were a rhythm and blues/soul/doo-wop vocal group from Los Angeles, California in the 1950s and 1960s. ...

Sources

Although the film was advertised in trailers as "the first film of its kind", the plot and to an extent the cinematography was based almost entirely on Akira Kurosawa's film Yojimbo (written by Kurosawa and Ryuzo Kikushima), and was the subject of a successful lawsuit by Yojimbo's producers.

Kurosawa remained insistent that he receive compensation. He wrote Leone: "It is a very fine film, but it is my film."[1]

British critic Sir Christopher Frayling identifies three principal sources: Sir Christopher John Frayling (born 25 December 1946) is a British educationalist and writer, known for his study of popular culture. ...

"Partly derived from Kurosawa's samurai film Yojimbo, partly from Dashiell Hammett's novel Red Harvest (1929), but most of all from Carlo Goldoni's eighteenth-century play Servant of Two Masters..." (The BFI Companion to the Western, 1988) Samuel Dashiell Hammett (May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American author of hardboiled detective novels and short stories. ... Red Harvest (1929) is a novel by Dashiell Hammett. ... Carlo Goldoni Carlo Osvaldo Goldoni (25 February 1707 - 6 February 1793) was a celebrated Italian playwright, whom critics today rank among the European theatres greatest authors. ... A Servant to Two Masters (Arlecchino servitore di due padroni) is a comedy by the Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni written in 1753. ...

Sergio Leone has cited these alternate sources in his defence. He claims a thematic debt, for both Fistful and Yojimbo, to Carlo Goldoni's Servant of Two Masters - the basic premise of the protagonist playing two camps off against each other. For Leone, this rooted the origination of Fistful/Yojimbo in European, and specifically Italian culture. Obviously, it can be claimed that Leone has a vested interest in doing this - distancing the accusations of his stealing Kurosawa's ideas, if those ideas were already borrowed from an Italian classic.

The Servant of Two Masters plot can also be seen in Dashiell Hammett's 1929 detective novel Red Harvest. The Continental Op hero of the novel is, significantly, a man without name. Leone himself believed that Red Harvest, in turn, had influenced Yojimbo. The Continental Op is a fictional character created by Dashiell Hammett. ...

"Kurosawa's Yojimbo was inspired by an American novel of the serie-noire so I was really taking the story back home again." (Spaghetti Westerns, Frayling, 1981)

Leone also referenced numerous American Westerns in the film, most notably Shane (1953) and My Darling Clementine (1946). Shane is a 1953 western film made by Paramount Pictures. ... The year 1953 in film involved some significant events. ... My Darling Clementine is a 1946 western film, directed by John Ford, based on the story of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral between the Earp brothers and the Clanton gang. ... See also: 1945 in film 1946 1947 in film 1940s in film years in film film // Events Top grossing films North America The Bells of St. ...

In popular culture

A Fistful of Dollars, although not the first 'spaghetti western', it was indeed the first to be distinctively Italian and as such was immensely influential and is referenced heavily elsewhere in popular culture:

• Back to the Future trilogy: in Back to the Future Part II, a short scene is seen where Eastwood's character survives the final gunfight which foreshadows the scene in Back to the Future Part III where Marty duplicates the scene (in the same costume, and after having told locals his name was 'Clint Eastwood').
• Star Trek: The Next Generation: in the episode "A Fistful of Datas", Worf and Troi are trapped in a holodeck western until they play it out to the end of the story. Meanwhile, each of the characters was replaced by a likeness of Data. There is an homage to the iron plate when Worf rigs a makeshift deflector shield.
• The title of the movie was parodied by the Futurama episode "A Fishful of Dollars", and The Comic Strip Presents: A Fistful of Travellers' Cheques.
• In one of the Halloween episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Xander Harris wore a costume similar to, and based on, the attire that Clint Eastwood's "man with no name" wore in the spaghetti westerns in which he starred.
• In the video-game Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, after a number of saves the character Para-Medic talks to Naked Snake about the movie, as the game is set in 1964.
• The band The Mars Volta uses themes from A Fistful of Dollars at their live shows.
• The movie Last Man Standing (1996) starring Bruce Willis is a version of both Yojimbo and A Fistful of Dollars.
• The American version of the videogame Ape Escape 3 features a stage set in a Wild West town, and the movie the monkeys are filming there is called A Fistful Of Bananas.
• In the second part of Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, the theme music of the film is used after Budd shoots the Bride with two rounds of rock-salt and disarms her, shortly after this he insults and then drugs her unconscious.
• Towards the end of a story in Animaniacs where Chicken Boo masquerades as "the man with no personality", one of the characters produces "a fistful of feathers", followed immediately by another character producing "a few feathers more".
• In the edited English-language edition of the original Dragon Ball anime series, when Bulma and Goku were attempting to catch Oolong the shape shifting pig, who had taken the form of a fish and jumped into a river, Goku took advantage of the greedy pig's nature and baited a fishing pool with money. Oolong immediately took the bait. When Goku reeled him in, Oolong had the money in his mouth and Goku exclaimed (in the English translation) "Look!! A fish full of dollars!".
• The sketch comedy film Kentucky Fried Movie contains within it a short film spoofing Enter the Dragon which is titled "A Fistful of Yen".
• An episode of The Paul Hogan Show features a parody sketch called "A Fistful of Ravioli."
• Stephen King has credited the trilogy with inspiring the atmosphere of his novel The Gunslinger.
• In the music video for the Velvet Revolver song She Builds Quick Machines, one of the band members walks down a street of a small town similar to the town in the movie, wearing the attire of the Man with No Name.
• Alternative rock band, Fist Full of Yen is a spoof on the movie's title.

This article is about the first film in the Back to the Future trilogy. ... Back to the Future Part II is a 1989 film and the first sequel to the 1985 film Back to the Future. ... Back to the Future Part III is a science fiction western comedy film starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd that opened on May 25, 1990. ... This article is about the actor/producer/director. ... The title as it appeared in most episodes opening credits. ... A Fistful of Datas is a sixth-season episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. ... Worf, played by Michael Dorn, is a main character in both Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and also the films based on The Next Generation. ... Deanna Troi, played by actress Marina Sirtis, is a main character in Star Trek: The Next Generation, and the related films which followed. ... A holodeck on the Enterprise-D; the arch and exit are prominent. ... Data[1] is a character, portrayed by Brent Spiner, in the Star Trek fictional universe. ... For a description of the medieval homage ceremony see commendation ceremony Homage is generally used in modern English to mean any public show of respect to someone to whom you feel indebted. ... USS Voyagers shields in action In the fictional Star Trek universe, shields are defenses used to protect some starships in the 23rd and 24th centuries by absorbing or deflecting the energy of natural or artificial hazards. ... This article is about the television series. ... A Fishful of Dollars is episode six in the first season of Futurama. ... This article is about the British comedy group; for the published art form, see comic strip. ... For other uses, see Buffy the Vampire Slayer (disambiguation). ... Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (commonly abbreviated MGS3) is a stealth-based game directed by Hideo Kojima, developed and published by Konami for the PlayStation 2. ... Para-Medic is a fictional character in the video game Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Big Boss. ... The Mars Volta is an American progressive rock group founded by Cedric Bixler-Zavala, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, Isaiah Ikey Owens and Jeremy Michael Ward. ... Last Man Standing is a 1996 action film written and directed by Walter Hill, starring Bruce Willis, Christopher Walken, and Bruce Dern. ... Walter Bruce Willis (born March 19, 1955 in Idar-Oberstein, Germany) is an American actor and singer. ... Ape Escape 3 is a platforming video game published and developed by Sony for the PlayStation 2 video game console. ... Kill Bill is the fourth film by writer-director Quentin Tarantino. ... This article is about the television series. ... Chicken Boo was a sketch character on the Animaniacs television series. ... For a Few Dollars More (Italian: Per qualche dollaro in più) is a 1965 spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Gian Maria Volonté. German actor Klaus Kinski also plays a supporting role as a secondary villain. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The Kentucky Fried Movie is an American comedy film, released in 1977. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... The Paul Hogan Show aired on Australian television in a the 1970s. ... Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of over 200 stories including over 50 bestselling horror novels. ... The Gunslinger is a novel by American author Stephen King, and is the first volume in the Dark Tower series, which King considers to be his magnum opus. ... Velvet Revolver (abbreviated to VR) is a hard rock supergroup with three former members of Guns N Roses — Slash, Duff McKagan, and Matt Sorum (who also played with rock bands Hawk and The Cult) — plus Scott Weiland, the lead singer of Stone Temple Pilots, and Dave Kushner of the 80s... She Builds Quick Machines is a rock song by Velvet Revolver, and was released as the first single off the album Libertad on May 21, 2007. ...

External links

• Title theme on YouTube
• A Fistful of Dollars at the Internet Movie Database
• A Fistful of Dollars at the Spaghetti Western Database
• Fistful-of-Leone.com
• Sergio Leone Web Board
• Clint Eastwood.net
• Clint Eastwood Forums
• A Comparison of 'Yojimbo', 'A Fistful of Dollars' and 'Last Man Standing'