A Fistful of Dollars [Blu-ray]

Director: Sergio Leone, Monte Hellman

Overview

By the time Sergio Leone made this film, Italians had already produced about 20 films ironically labelled "spaghetti westerns." Leone approached the genre with great love and humor. Although the plot was admittedly borrowed from Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo (1961), Leone managed to create a work of his own that would serve as a model for many films to come. Clint Eastwood plays a cynical gunfighter who comes to a small border town and offers his services to two rivaling gangs. Neither gang is aware of his double play, and each thinks it is using him, but the stranger will outwit them both. The picture was the first installment in a cycle commonly known as the "Dollars" trilogy. Later, United Artists, who distributed it in the U.S., coined another term for it: the "Man With No Name" trilogy. While not as impressive as its follow-ups For a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966), A Fistful of Dollars contains all of Leone's eventual trademarks: taciturn characters, precise framing, extreme close-ups, and the haunting music of Ennio Morricone. Not released in the U.S. until 1967 due to copyright problems, the film was decisive in both Clint Eastwood's career and the recognition of the Italian western.

Product Details

Release Date:	08/02/2011
UPC:	0883904236429
Original Release:	1964
Rating:	R
Source:	MGM (VIDE
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono, DTS 5.1-Channel Surround Sound]
Language:	English
Time:	1:39:00
Sales rank:	7,170

Special Features

The Christopher Frayling Archives: Fistful of Dollars; Feature commentary by noted film historian Sir Christopher Frayling; A New Kind of Hero; A Few Weeks in Spain: Clint Eastwood on the experience of making the film; Tre Voci: Fistful of Dollars; Not Ready for Primetime: Renowned filmmaker Monte Hellman discusses the television broadcast of a Fistful of Dollars; The Network Prologue with Harry Dean Stanton; Location Comparisons: Then to Now; 10 radio spots; Double Bill trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Clint Eastwood	Joe
Gian Maria Volont?	Ram?n Rojo,Ram?n Rojo
Marianne Koch	Marisol
Sieghardt Rupp	Esteban Rojo
Jose Calvo	Silvanito,Silvanito
Wolfgang Lukschy	John Baxter,Actor
Antonio Prieto	Benito Rojo
Margarita Lozano	Consuela Baxter
Bruno Carotenuto	Antonio Baxter
Benito Stefanelli	Rubio
Mario Brega	Chico
Josef Egger	Piripero,Piripero,Piripero
Antonio Vica	Actor
Raf Baldassarre	Juan De Dios
Johannes Siedel	Actor
Carla Calo	Actor
John Wells	Actor
Daniel Mart?n	Juli?n,Julio
Aldo Sambrell	Rojo gang member
Luis Barboo	Baxter Gunman 2
Frank Bra?a	Baxter Gang Member
Jos? Canalejas	Rojo Gang Member
Juan Cort?s	Cavalry Captain
?lvaro de Luna	Rojo Gang Member
Nino del Arco	Jesus
Jose Halufi	Rojo Gang Member
Frank Kalvow	Actor
Lee Miller	Man at Bar
Antonio Molino Rojo	Baxter Gang Member
Antonio Moreno	Juan de dios
Nazzareno Natale	Rojo Gang Member
Jos? Orjas	Actor
Manuel Pe?a	Actor
Antonio Pica	Rojo Gang Member
Nosher Powell	Cowboy
Julio P?rez Tabernero	Baxter Gunman 4
Jos? Riesgo	Mexican Cavalry Captain
Lorenzo Robledo	Baxter Gunman #1
Enrique Santiago	Fausto, Rojo Gang Member
Umberto Spadaro	Miguel
Fernando S?nchez Polack	Rojo Gang Member Crushed by Wine Cask
William R. Thompkins	Baxter Gang Member
Edmondo Tieghi	Mexican soldier
Antonio Vico	Actor
Harry Dean Stanton	Prison Warden .version 1977
Enrico Maria Salerno	Joe
Carol Brown	Antonia Baxter
Benny Reeves	Rubio
Richard Stuyvesant	Chico
John Wels	Actor
Ennio Morricone	Composer

Technical Credits

Jaime Comas Gil

Sergio Leone

V?ctor Andr?s Catena

Akira Kurosawa

Fernando Di Leo

Ry?z? Kikushima

Duccio Tessari

Tonino Valerii

Adriano Bolzoni

Mark Lowell

G. Schock

Jaime Comas Gil	Screenwriter
Sergio Leone	Screenwriter
V?ctor Andr?s Catena	Screenwriter
Arrigo Colombo	Producer
Giorgio Papi	Producer
Manuel Baquero	Special Effects
Benito Stefanelli	Stunts
Elio Pacella	Sound Effects
Akira Kurosawa	Screenwriter
Fernando Di Leo	Screenwriter
Ry?z? Kikushima	Screenwriter
Duccio Tessari	Screenwriter
Tonino Valerii	Screenwriter
Adriano Bolzoni	Screenwriter
Pietro Santini	Producer
Mark Lowell	Screenwriter
G. Schock	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

The hugely influential A Fistful of Dollars launched the careers of star Clint Eastwood, director Sergio Leone, and composer Ennio Morricone. Essentially a remake of Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo, the film was one of the first low-budget, Italian-made "spaghetti westerns" to reap a significant amount of money and develop a cult following in the U.S. marketplace. Though John Ford's 1956 film The Searchers marked the of end the traditional western, Leone's "Man with No Name" trilogy ushered in a new, highly stylized version of the genre, revitalizing it in the late 1960s. Dollars and its companions, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, are raw portrayals of suffering and violence which blur the lines of good-versus-bad. Eastwood's cold, squinting, anti-hero is at the heart of the new amorality; it would be a role that would influence the rest of his career. For Leone, the trilogy would be a training ground for his masterpiece, the big-budgeted Once Upon a Time in the West. Morricone went on to become one of the most prolific, instantly recognizable composers in movie history.