Just a copy of Akira's work. No wonder they lost the lawsuit Shame! Shame! Shame!

A film I owe a lot, my dream of becoming an actor, because I can not say I owe my "acting career" to it, I'm neither Brando, nor Pacino, or De Niro, I'm just a mercenary. All thanks, in a subliminal way, to Ramón Rojo, played by a certain John Wells alias Gian Maria Volontè. You can not even imagine the impact with a delayed effect on a 7-year-old child, myself, seeing the movie for the first time. It was happening in Bucharest, the communist Romania, in the theater hall called "Feroviar" (it was near the North Railway Station-Gara de Nord, there is no longer now, the building was demolished). I had to stay in a huge queue to buy a ticket, and I did not manage to make it from the first day of the stay, I had to come to another queue again another day. Since then, I have watched the film several times, cyclically, at different ages. The movie captures you how it begins, with the animated images of riders in red and black, on Morricone's divine music, then with the names of Eastwood and Marianne Koch, then the title of the film being "shot" against the bullet-specific noise. OK, I will not tell you the whole story, like others do, watch Piripero to not take your measures... and prepare for part two ( Check also my review for "For a Few Dollars More") !

This film has always been my favorite western film of all time. The movie starts out with Clint Eastwood and Belle Star riding into the town of San Miguel. The two arrive at the town by landing off of a spaceship flown by the aliens from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. (making this a prequel to that film) After getting of the spaceship Clint Eastwood gets a strange sense of confusion do to the drastic change in altitude. He then strangles Belle Starr for three days, then tries to revive her. (It didn't work) Clint Eastwood then kills three members of the Baxter's then tells the coffin maker "My mistake four coffins" almost forgetting Belle Star's corpse lying out towards the town entrance. Clint then proceeds to screw over both the Baxter's and the Rojo's for his own personal gain. The ending of this movie was great Clint Eastwood is getting shot at by Ramon Rojo in the final duel and then stands out in front of Romon and says "hold on to something. here comes the rain, this damn is about to break" after a long pause Roman not buying into what Clint Eastwood is saying shoots him in the face killing him instantly like an idiot. A space fly's over picking up Roman and his gang, reveling that he was actually Clint Eastwood character all along. The strange feeling Clint had when getting off the spaceship was really Roman taking over his body.

I've seen several dozen spaghetti westerns over the years, and while I would never say that "A Fistful of Dollars" is one of the BEST spaghetti westerns ever made, it is without doubt an above average example of the genre. Despite being saddled with a low budget, which does admittedly give the movie a bit of a crude feeling (though this unpolished feel does give the movie some welcome grit), everybody involved is at the top of his game. Clint Eastwood makes a great anti-hero, one that you don't totally like but all the same acts in an undeniably compelling manner. Ennio Morricone's musical score is a classic, one that will have you humming long after watching the movie. And there is, of course, Sergio Leone's direction. He does not only give the movie that aforementioned slightly crude but compelling feeling, he knows how to compose shots and direct action sequences for maximum impact. The only real flaw I would say is to be found in the movie is that by today's standards the movie is both a little long (100 minutes) and a tad slow. Yes, I've seen much longer spaghetti westerns that were great stuff (like Leone's "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly"), but in THIS particular spaghetti western, I don't think there's quite enough story for its length. Don't get me wrong, the movie is never boring or tedious, but I think it would be better if it were a bit more lean in its telling. All the same, the movie is well worth seeing, both as entertainment and as an important milestone in the western genre.