Fistful of Dollars-Collectors Ed (1964)

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"[T]he DOLLARS movies look nothing like any western before or since." 05/01/2005 p.142

ReelViews 8 of 10
"Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars is notable for two things: it was the first of a new motion picture subgenre that flourished during the mid-to-late-'60s and it boosted the image of one of America's most durable stars. When A Fistful of Dollars reached Italian screens bearing the title of Per un Pugno di Dollari, it introduced the world to the Spaghetti Western. That appellation, an insult that quickly caught on and became a label, resulted from pejorative press references disparaging the movie's Italian background. A Fistful of Dollars also jump-started Clint Eastwood's big-screen career. While this was not his first movie role, at the time when he agreed to top Leone's marquee, he was best known for the TV series Rawhide...While it's true that some ""important"" films turn out to be dull when viewed in retrospect, A Fistful of Dollars is thoroughly enjoyable, with the obvious flaws serving only to enhance its capacity to entertain." - James Berardinelli
 
DVD Times 9 of 10
"Although it wasn't the first Italian Western, A Fistful Of Dollars was the film which first began to define the conventions of Italian Westerns. The films which preceded it had been straight transpositions of the American style; Sergio Leone's film made a break and the result is something which still has the exciting sense of a filmmaker discovering a whole new way of doing things...A Fistful Of Dollars remains, forty years on, cracking good entertainment...it never seems rushed and Leone's world view - that cruelty and pain are pre-eminent and moral goodness is either exploited or crushed - already comes across very clearly. His later films are more complex and ambiguous - there's nothing here to match the moral shadings of Colonel Mortimer or Cheyenne - but if it's a great piece of action filmmaking you want, then A Fistful Of Dollars certainly provides the goods." - Mike Sutton