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A Fistful of Dollars (Per un pugno di dollari in Italy, and officially on-screen in the United States as simply Fistful of Dollars) is a 1964 film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood. Released in the United States in 1967, it initiated the popularity of the Spaghetti western film genre. It was followed by For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, also starring Eastwood. Collectively, the films are commonly known as "The Dollar(s) Trilogy". In the United States, the United Artists publicity campaign referred to Eastwood's character in all three films as The Man With No Name. As this was the first film of the Spaghetti Western genre to be released in the United States, many of the European cast and crew took on American stage names. This included Sergio Leone himself, who was credited as "Bob Robertson".
Plot
Influence Although the film was advertised in trailers as "the first film of its kind", the plot and even the cinematography was based almost entirely on Akira Kurosawa's film Yojimbo (written by Kurosawa and Ryuzo Kikushima). Yojimbo itself is believed to have been based on Dashiell Hammett's novel Red Harvest, although Kurosawa never credited the author, despite acknowledging the source. Kurosawa remained insistent that he receive compensation. He wrote Leone: "It is a very fine film, but it is my film."* The producers of Yojimbo successfully sued the production of A Fistful of Dollars for copyright infringement, and gained an apology, $100,000 dollars and 15% of the box office totals in Asia to the movie in compensation. Kurosawa later admitted he quite liked A Fistful of Dollars and considered it a worthy remake. Leone also referenced numerous American Westerns in the film, most notably Shane and My Darling Clementine. Stephen King has credited the trilogy with inspiring the atmosphere of his novel The Gunslinger. Trivia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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