"A Fistful Of Dollars" (1964)

(Originally released as Per un pugno di dollari)

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Marianne Koch, John Wells, W. Lukschy, S. Rupp, Joe Edger, Antonio Prieto

First, the Lowdown: A mysterious gunman pits two warring gangs against each other.

Perhaps more important than knowing how to fight is knowing how not to.

This is the first appearance of Sergio Leone's “Man With No Name”, and in many ways it's more potent than its other appearances. There is a lot of weight to be put into names, they often touch upon something in our collective subconscious. By not naming our main character, we can't lay any expectations on him aside from what he proves to us by his actions. Then again, it's hard to imagine anyone else pulling off the role as effectively as Eastwood with his flinty eyes and chronically dusty complexion.

Our Man With No Name enters the outskirts of town to pause at a well. He witnesses a small boy sneak into a cabin only to be chased back out again and shot at. His father tries to lock him into an opposing building, but the men who chased his son beat him. To further hammer the welcoming atmosphere of the village MWNN hears a bell toll. The people scramble to their houses and peer out of cracked doors and windows at him. A dead man rides his horse out one last time – the message “Adios Amigo” tacked to his back. The bell ringer happily tells MWNN that he can get rich working for the Rojos or the Baxters, or be killed.

Once in town, a group of men belonging to the Baxter gang accost MWNN and shoot at his horse to spook it. He regroups at a tavern, where the innkeeper informs MWNN that the only person who doesn't work for either the Rojos or the Baxters that makes a good living is the coffin maker. Seeing an opportunity, MWNN announces to Don Miguel Rojo that he's available for hire, but not cheap. He then walks to the Baxter men who previously harassed him and kills four of them before they can draw.

Seeing a good thing when it comes to him, Don Miguel hires him on. Miguel tells MWNN that the military is going to come to the outskirts of town to purchase arms from the US Cavalry. Settling in, MWNN runs into a woman he saw earlier named Marisol. Miguel's brother Esteban is furious that a gringo should be paid so highly, but between the army coming into town and their brother Ramon, the REAL muscle behind the Rojos, being away all Miguel wants is peace and quiet.

The army arrive with a heavily guarded stagecoach – meaning that they are protecting something important. That evening MWNN asks about the woman Marisol, she was married to someone else, but Ramon fell in love with her. At dawn MWNN and the innkeeper see the army leave town with considerably less noise than they arrived. They follow the soldiers to a rendezvous at the riverside. But the Mexican army is ambushed and machine-gunned down by the Cavalry – who are actually Ramon's gang wearing their uniforms. They arrange the bodies so that it looks like they fought each other and make off with the Mexicans gold.

Arriving back home Miguel introduces MWNN to Ramon, who tells the rest of the Rojo gang his plan on inviting the Baxters over to negotiates a truce. The MWNN doesn't buy it however, and makes his leave of the Rojos because there will be peace. It is a delaying tactic – the US Cavalry will investigate their missing men, so Ramon plans on being peaceful until the heat blows over. Then the Rojos will take over everything.

But the MWNN has bigger plans. While the Rojos and Baxters confer, he smuggles two bodies from the massacre at the riverbank and hides them in the cemetery. He then tells the two gangs the same story, that two men from the army attack survived and are hiding in the graveyard. The Baxters plan on using them to prove to the government that the Rojos killed them, the Rojos plan on killing the “survivors” before anyone can use them.

A Fistful of Dollars is Leone's tribute to Akira Kurasawa's Yojimbo. But since I've never seen that movie, I can't really say how good of a tribute it really is. Leone certainly knows how to stir the pot of tension however, and he knows that the best killers are also the smartest. There is an odd kind of relaxedness to the Man With No Name, he rarely hurries his actions. Even his walk seems slow and deliberate without appearing overconfident.

Line of the movie: “When a man with a .45 meets a man with a rifle, the man with the pistol will be a dead man.”

Five stars. Drink responsibly.