A Fistful of Dollars (1964)
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An unnamed stranger arrives in a frontier town and begins playing two warring smuggler families against each other to secure a hidden stash of gold.
The story
An unnamed stranger arrives at the frontier town of San Miguel, where a bitter feud exists between two smuggler families: the Rojo brothers and the family of the town sheriff, the Baxters. To profit from the conflict, the stranger decides to manipulate both sides. After demonstrating his lethal skills to both factions, he begins a scheme to play them against one another. He uses a series of deceptions, including staging a scene at a nearby cemetery to make it appear as though survivors of a Mexican military raid are still alive, forcing the two warring groups into a deadly confrontation while he seeks a hidden cache of gold.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
An unnamed stranger arrives in San Miguel and learns of a feud between the Rojo brothers and the sheriff's family, the Baxters. He decides to play them against each other to gain a stash of gold. After a skirmish where he kills four men who insult him, he stages a scene at a cemetery with two 'surviving' soldiers to bait both sides into a gunfight. During the chaos, he searches the Rojo hacienda for gold and rescues Marisol, a woman held by the Rojos. He trades her to the Baxters for the capture of the sheriff's son, Antonio. Later, he frees Marisol and her family, leading the Rojos to believe the Baxters were responsible. The Rojos then burn the Baxter home, killing everyone inside. The stranger eventually confronts the Rojos in a final showdown, where he uses a steel plate to deflect bullets, kills the Rojo men, and rescues the local innkeeper, Silvanito. He then defeats the leader, Ramón, and rides away from town.
- Original title
- Per un pugno di dollari
- First release year
- 1964
- Runtime (minutes)
- 99
- Production countries
- Italy; Spain; West Germany
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Sergio Leone
- Writers
- Sergio Leone · Director/Writer; Tessari · Writer
- Cast and characters
- Clint Eastwood · The Stranger; Gian Maria Volonté · null; Marianne Koch · null; Wolfgang Lukschy · null; Joseph Egger · null
- Genres
- Western; Spaghetti Western
- Themes
- Manipulation; Greed
- Tone and mood
- Operatic; Violent
- Setting
- A frontier town in Mexico during the Western era.
- Premise and plot tags
- Western; Anti-hero
- Content notes
- Violence
- Reception
- Initially dismissed by Italian critics but later recognized as a landmark of the spaghetti Western genre and a highly influential film.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 98% · scale: approval rating · review count: 55
- Production trivia
- The film was an unofficial remake of Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo.; The score was composed by Ennio Morricone.; Clint Eastwood's character is known as the 'Man with No Name'.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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