LogFAQs > #957506466

Inviso: This was an extremely enjoyable film. For starters, Clint Eastwood is surprisingly charming in this. Im coming off multiple movies where John Wayne is supposed to be this charming, lovable rogue, yet Clint Eastwood manages to pull off that role effortlessly. The first half to two thirds of the movie involve him riding into town and discovering that two crime families are at war and trying to one-up one another. So, what does he do? He stokes the fire and makes a little money for his troubles. He plays both sides against one another and makes them both look foolish in the process. However, his fatal flaw is that he gets sentimental, and cant stand seeing a little boy cry over his captive mother. He rescues her and thinks hes in the clear, only to get found out for his double dealing. The last act of the film involves him thinking quick on his feet to improvise and escape captivity, and then returning to town after hes fully healed to outsmart the bad guys one last time. This is how you tell the story of a one-man army, and its really great to watch, especially since everything set-up throughout the film comes full circle perfectly.

Johnbobb: I watched TGTBATU before this, and had heard that was the best Leone had put out, but similarly to how I preferred Rashomon to Seven Samurai, I prefer Fistful of Dollars to Leone's later, bigger scale films. Almost every character in this feels surprisingly developed given it's not-overlong runtime. The pace is constant, and Eastwood's character, standoffish dickhead that he can be sometimes, is easy to root for, especially after you see him beaten within an inch of his life. The Rojo family, meanwhile, all feel distinct from each other, with Ramon's commanding presence dominating every scene he's in and Esteban's sadistic stares haunting the film's most brutal moments. The film is fantastic in its smallest moments.

CoolCly: I had never seen the dollars movies before this project, and Im very glad they were included. This was a great movie.

The quickdraw on the three guys at the beginning of this film feels like the first of any of the movies in this project to actually create good tension in the moments leading up to the firing of a showdown and having it feel relieved

In the other movies up until this point, the draw in the climax is usually instantaneous and doesnt really have a lot of tension. The main character just beats the enemy and then its over.

Ramone wasnt just defeated. He was systematically taken apart and destroyed.

The heart, Ramone. Dont forget the heart. Aim for the heart or youll never stop me.

When a man with a .45 meets a man with a rifle, you said the man with the pistols a deadman. Lets see if thats true. Go ahead, load up and shoot.

Ive never seen a man so thoroughly defeated.

8.5/10

Poke: The first of the Dollars Trilogy which put Clint Eastwood on the map and etched him onto the Mount Rushmore of Western leads. And its a damn good start to the trilogy.

Karo: The adventures of an anonymous wild west mercenary who plays two groups of mexican bandits off each other in order to make a quick buck and everyone just immediately trusts this suspicious gringo for no reason.
The story takes place in a lawless town just across the border where ketchup is spilled on a regular basis and everyone seems to sweat so much it looks like their faces are covered in a thin film of oil.
Our protagonist is an interesting character, though at times it seems he is just a bit too blessed in his luck and the sheer stupidity of the people in the world around him. Of special note is the scene where The Nameless One escapes the bandit compound due to his pursuers failing at a game of hide and seek that a six-year-old could accomplish. Oh man our prisoner has broken down the door of his cell! I'm sure he's still in there for some reason so we should all immediately rush inside! This is saturday morning cartoon villain levels of competence.
It's just feels really old, and the fistful of dollars in question here was apparently the movie's budget because wow these special effects. Probably a movie that is more impactful than actually good.

KBM: This just didn't click with me on the same level as the other Dollars trilogy movies did. The story didn't engage me I didn't care about the conflict occurring in the town between the two smuggler families, and the Stranger's part in it didn't really interest me that much either. He just rolls into town, fucks shit up on all sides, and leaves. I can't deny its influence in the development of the Spaghetti Western, but I definitely found the others on the list more engaging. It probably has to do with the fact that so much of the draw of the subgenre comes from the idiosyncratic visuals and soundtrack, and those aspects, though still in the capable hands of Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone, just haven't really been nailed down yet Leone's direction is amateurish compared to his later work, and the soundtrack is repetitive and a lot blander than Morricone's later stuff. It's certainly not a bad movie, just one I found kind of uninteresting.
---

Bear Bro
The Empire of Silence