A fistful of dollars (1964)

	Also Known As: Pour une poignée de dollars, Für eine handvoll Dollar, Per un pugno de dollari, Por un puñado de dólares
	Year of first release: 1964
	Director: Sergio Leone
	Actors: Clint Eastwood, Gian Maria Volontè, Marianne Koch, Mario Brega
	Country: I, E, D
	Genre: Western
	Conditions of visioning: 08.11.2016, Bluray, English version
Synopsis: An anonymous, but deadly man (Eastwood) rides into a town torn by war between two factions, the Baxters and the Rojo's. Instead of fleeing or dying, as most other would do, the man schemes to play the two sides off each other, getting rich in the bargain.
Review: I watched this movies many times since my childhood. This movie did open for me the world of western genre and specifically spaghetti western. Western with humour and with style! The style of Sergio Leone was revolutionary at that time and made his success: large landscape images, close-ups on the characters faces, main character neither good nor bad, adequate cast, amazing music collaboration with Ennio Morricone as composer.  The story has something good and vertuous, to help a woman and her child to meet the father again in freedom without being threatened. And greedy, to extort money from both families in town. SPOILER As usual the story ends in a fair play duel. Gian Maria Volontè plays greatly the both impulsive and intelligent bad guy. Mario Brega completes the bad guys excellent acting. The story wins a lot by having both hero and bad guys as main characters and well cast. The rest of the cast is actually good as well. The villagers helping Clint Eastwood have marking faces that make them friendly. This is also one of the Sergio Leone's signature.  The image is just great! The big landscape images of southern Spain, by Almeria, that we can recognize in several movies of Sergio Leone. The excellent image composition and slow camera movements in the scenes in the village. For me the major quality of Sergio Leone is that image and story are amazingly enhanced by the music by Ennio Morricone. After this amazing success, Clint Eastwood, Ennio Morricone and Sergio Leone became legends of cinema. One remarkable add-on in the Bluray is an interview of Christopher Frayling an expert in spaghetti westerns and collectionneur of their posters. Many posters of very different countries are shown as well as the covers of the LPs. This gives another insight in the creativitiy and diversity of that time.
Rating: 9 /10