Per un pugno di dollari (1964)

A wandering gunfighter plays two rival families against each other in a town torn apart by greed, pride, and revenge.

Director:

Sergio Leone (as Bob Robertson)

Writers:

Adriano Bolzoni (story) (as A. Bonzzoni), Mark Lowell (dialogue)

Stars:

Clint Eastwood, Gian Maria Volontè, Marianne Koch

1 win & 4 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Clint Eastwood	...	Joe
Marianne Koch	...	Marisol
Gian Maria Volontè	...	Ramón Rojo (as John Wells) (as Johnny Wels)
Wolfgang Lukschy	...	John Baxter (as W. Lukschy)
Sieghardt Rupp	...	Esteban Rojo (as S. Rupp)
Joseph Egger	...	Piripero (as Joe Edger)
Antonio Prieto	...	Don Benito Rojo / Don Miguel Rojo
José Calvo	...	Silvanito (as Jose Calvo)
Margarita Lozano	...	Consuelo Baxter (as Margherita Lozano)
Daniel Martín	...	Julián (as Daniel Martin)
Benito Stefanelli	...	Rubio (as Benny Reeves)
Mario Brega	...	Chico (as Richard Stuyvesant)
Bruno Carotenuto	...	Antonio Baxter (as Carol Brown)
Aldo Sambrell	...	Rojo gang member (as Aldo Sambreli)

Storyline

Drifter gunman, Joe (Clint Eastwood), arrives in the Mexican village of San Miguel at the border of the United States of America, and befriends the owner of the local bar, Silvanito. Joe discovers that the town is dominated by two gangster lords: John Baxter (Wolfgang Lukschy) and the cruel Ramón Rojo (Gian Maria Volontè). When Joe kills four men of Baxter's gang, he is hired by Ramón's brother, Esteban Rojo (Sieghardt Rupp), to join their gang. However, Joe decides to work for both sides, playing one side against the other.

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Plot Keywords:

spaghetti western | yojimbo plot | two gun holster | army | italo western | 

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Taglines:

This short cigar belongs to a man with no name. This long gun belongs to a man with no name. This poncho belongs to a man with no name. He's going to trigger a whole new style in adventure.

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Western

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Certificate:

13+

Did You Know?

Trivia

The scene where Joe (Clint Eastwood) faces off with Ramón (Gian Maria Volontè) using the boiler plate as a bulletproof vest is being watched by Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson) in Back to the Future Part II (1989) and then re-created by Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) in its sequel Back to the Future Part III (1990) during his showdown with Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen (also Wilson) near the end of the movie. It is also during that movie that Marty dons an outfit similar to Eastwood's and, when asked his name, says "Clint Eastwood".

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Goofs

In one scene showing the hills beyond the town, the ruins of Tabernas Castle can be seen on the hilltop, showing that it was filmed in Andalucia, Spain. The castle was used by Fernando and Isabella during their siege of Almeria in the 1480s.

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Quotes

John Baxter: Wait! Ramon! We'll pack up we'll leave, anything!
Ramon Rojo: Are you sure Baxter?
John Baxter: I swear it Ramon.
Ramon Rojo: Maybe you should discuss it with your wife. I don't think she'll be too happy!
[shoots him]

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Alternate Versions

When the film first aired on American TV (ABC) in August 1977, a network executive ordered the creation of a new prologue (directed by Monte Hellman) to give a moral justification for the lead character's killings: a prison warden (Harry Dean Stanton) commutes "The Man With No Name's" sentence if he goes to San Miguel and restores order to the town. Neither Eastwood or Leone participated in this new sequence ("The Man With No Name" is seen only from the rear), and this distortion of Leone's creative vision has reportedly been dropped from subsequent presentations. This prologue can be found on the Special Edition DVD and later Blu-Ray release along with an interview with Harry Dean Stanton about its making and sourcing from a Betamax copy of the ABC American TV broadcast.

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Connections

Referenced in CCTV (2011)

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Soundtracks

Sweet Betsy from Pike
(uncredited)
Written by John A. Stone
Performed by Clint Eastwood

User Reviews

Italian Red Harvest

In the middle '20's, Dashiell Hammett (best known as author of "The Maltese Falcon") wrote'Red Harvest", in which a nameless private eye (also alcoholic, a status shared by many Hammett heroes) is hired to clean up a small town kept in fear by two warring boot-leg mobs.

I believe "Red Harvest" did make it to film in the '30's, but I haven't been able to track that down and never saw it.

In 1961, Akira Kurosawa brought a version of the story to the screen in "Yojimbo', with Toshiro Mifune playing the nameless hero. Kurosawa and Mifune add an earthiness to the hero lacking in Hammett's tension filled original: Mifune's samurai is always scratching, eating, cringing or sneering. Perhaps this is to make up for the subtraction of the element of alcoholism that was the chief weakness of Hammett's anti-hero. But it also has the effect of rounding out the character so that he becomes human to us in a way Hammett's anti-hero is not.

In 1965, an Italian director, not yet credited with completed film, Sergio Leone, was hired to do a typical "spaghetti western" of the era. Instead, he remade 'Yojimbo" (without giving credit to the original, by the way) as "A Fistful of Dollars". The failure to credit "Yojimbo" as inspiration raises some ethical questions - but it must be noted that Kurosawa himself made no reference to Hammett in the credits to "Yojimbo"! In any event, "A Fistful.(...)" is a young director's film, full of flaws; but it has an undeniable black-humor and is crisply directed, with some striking visuals that seem to come out of nowhere, given the genre context in which the film is made. The nameless hero is played with a particular coolness by Clint Eastwood, which undercuts the earthiness- the scratching and scruffiness - that remains from the Mifune version - Eastwood's anti-hero rarely eats, and never cringes or sneers. The pivotal torture scene from Yojimbo remains, given a peculiar brutality by the addition of a pan of the expressionless faces of the onlooking outlaws. This scene - predicated on Eastwood's unwillingness to give up the young family he has saved, is finally what makes him a hero. Is it enough? Well. if not, he's certainly one stinky of a masochist, taking a beating like that for nothing. In a world as corrupt as that in which our hero finds himself, it is the smaller sacrifices that determine the ethics of a man. Remaining silent is sometimes the boldest statement to make; it was good enough for Kurosawa and Leone; it's good enough for me.

e.j. winner

Details

Country:

Italy Spain West Germany

Language:

Italian Spanish

Release Date:

22 December 1966 (Canada)

Also Known As:

Pour une poignée de dollars

Filming Locations:

Aldea del Fresno, Madrid, Spain

Box Office

Budget:

$200,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$14,500,000

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$14,516,248

Company Credits

Production Co:

Jolly Film, Constantin Film, Ocean Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1