A lone gunfighter looks grimly across the vast landscape. He pulled his hat low over his face. He is silent but quick with the weapon. Clint Eastwood perfected this anti-hero. By groundbreaking spaghetti westerns For a handful of dollars you can experience this for yourself for 100 minutes.
Although the American Western was long dying in the 1960s, Italian director Sergio Leone saw it great potential in the genre. At that time, Italy had already produced a few westerns, but none of great importance for world cinema. With For a Fistful of Dollars that should change suddenly.
Western milestone on Netflix: For a handful of dollars with Clint Eastwood as a silent gunslinger
The plot of For a Fistful of Dollars takes you to the remote, desolate desert town of San Miguel. Two rival families are up to mischief here. On one side are the Mexican Rojos, on the other the Anglo-American Baxters. Their gang war is carried out on the shoulders of the residents.
You can watch the trailer for For a Fistful of Dollars here:
For a Fistful of Dollars – Trailer (German) HD
Things get exciting when a stranger named Joe (Clint Eastwood) stirs up the gang war. He offers his services to both the Rojos and the Baxters. The gang leaders initially know nothing about this double game. However, Joe can’t keep the secret for long, so the situation gets even worse.
For a handful of dollars: Akira Kurosawa was the great role model for the legendary Clint Eastwood western
If the premise sounds familiar, that’s no coincidence. Leone has his film based on Akira Kurosawa’s model masterful samurai adventure Yojimbo modeling bodyguards. However, the familiar story was not simply copied: Leone cleverly combines it with characteristic Western elements.
Overnight, the Spaghetti Western became one of the most exciting subgenres in the world of moving images. Leone’s work and Eeastwood’s antihero have one Triggered a wave of similar films. However, very few were as good as the two other parts of the so-called Dollar Trilogy, which is based on For a Fistful of Dollars.
In 1965, just a year after the first part, Eastwood and Leone released the sequel For a Few Dollars More in cinemas. A prequel followed in 1966 with Two Glorious Scoundrels by far the best part the series. Here Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach engage in an incredible duel to the death, while Ennio Morricone delivers one of his best film scores that still gives you goosebumps today.
You can now stream the start of this western saga on Netflix.
This article was first published in a similar form on Moviepilot in November 2021.