A Fistful of Dollars (1964) on Netflix
A gunman with no name rides into San Miguel, a Mexican border town split between the Rojo brothers and Sheriff John Baxter's family. He means to profit from the feud.
- Netflix4.0/5
- IMDb7.9/10256,895 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes96%
Trailer
Plot summary
The innkeeper Silvanito tells a newly arrived stranger about the quarrel that divides San Miguel. One smuggling family is the Rojos, Don Miguel, Esteban and Ramón. Sheriff John Baxter and his wife Consuelo head the other, and each wants the town to itself. The stranger decides to make money from both. He shoots dead four men who insult him, showing what he can do. From hiding he watches the Rojos, in American uniforms, slaughter a party of Mexican soldiers carrying gold meant to buy rifles. He carries two of the bodies to a cemetery and props them up, then sells each faction the same story, that two soldiers survived the ambush.
Cast
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about A Fistful of Dollars (1964)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- A Fistful of Dollars was an unofficial remake of Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo, and Toho's lawsuit over it succeeded: Kurosawa and Toho took 15 percent of the film's revenue, a settlement that earned Kurosawa more than Yojimbo did.
- Sergio Leone first intended Henry Fonda for the Man with No Name, but the production company could not afford a major Hollywood star; Charles Bronson then turned the part down, saying the script was bad.
- Richard Harrison, who had starred in the Italian Western Gunfight at Red Sands, refused the lead and, when the producers asked his advice, suggested Clint Eastwood, whom he knew could play a cowboy convincingly.
- The Italian, German and Spanish co-production had a significant language barrier on set: Leone did not speak English, and Eastwood communicated with the Italian cast and crew mostly through the actor and stuntman Benito Stefanelli, an uncredited interpreter.
- Eastwood assembled the Man with No Name's look himself: black jeans from a sports shop on Hollywood Boulevard, a hat from a Santa Monica wardrobe firm, cigars from a Beverly Hills store, props brought from Rawhide, and a poncho acquired in Spain.
- A 1962 recording by Peter Tevis of Woody Guthrie's "Pastures of Plenty", arranged by Ennio Morricone, was played for Leone, who said "That's it"; Tevis claimed its tune and arrangements were copied for the film's opening title, "Titoli".
- In Italy the film took 2.7 billion lire and 14,797,275 admissions, more than any other Italian film up to that point.
