For a fistful of dollars: the spaghetti western that conquered the world (and Tarantino too)

For a fistful of dollars  is the film that has made world-famous the so-called Spaghetti-western, the Italian-style Western. Here it is the story of a film loved all-over- the world and considered a cult movie by directorTarantino, as he himself often says.

Small Budget-big success

The movie was released in 1964 and had an almost instant, unexpected success. Western movies were only American and not to upset the public the director, one of the main actor and the author of the soundtrack used American fake names. Director Sergio Leone became "Bob Robertson", Gian Maria Volontè "John Wells" and Ennio Morricone  "Don Savio". Only the young, and then unknown, Clint Eastwood used his own true name.

The title of the movie, then, says a lot about the money used to produce it: the budget was very small, because they feared it would be unsuccessful. The movie not only was successful and had huge receipts, but was also the first of the so-called "dollars trilogy".

The spaghetti-wester-the western Italian-style

Even though For a fist of dollars gave the genre a world-wide fame, it was not the first that was produced in Italy, but the 26° out of other 25, all totally ignored (the first one was Il terrore dell'Oklahoma by Mario Amendola, 1959).
For a fist of dollars changed the rules of classic western: the good not always win, hero is more of an anti-hero, always in tension between good and evil; woman is an ambiguous character too. irony, dramatic turns of events, epic duels, great actors and a soundtrack by Ennio Morriconie are the ingredients for a world-wide success.

The story

The main character of the movie is a gunfighter seeking his fortune  -Clint Eastwood-who takes advantadge of the rivalry between two smuggler gangs, based in a mexican little town.

Famous quotation: "When  a man with a .45 meets a man with a rifle, the man with a pistol will be a dead man." Yet, that's not always true, as charming Clint Eastwood proves, cold and straight-faced, irresistible with his cold-eyed stare.