This is the first Spaghetti western and a superb film. Both Clint Eastwood and Sergio Leone are on top form and the storyline, dialogue and action are tremendous.

A classic.

No more Rawhide for Clint Eastwood,as the stranger rides on to Italy to meet a legendary director by the name of Sergio Leone to make this classic western that started a trilogy and a genre like no other,with a distinctive richocet sound of bullets,the sun blazed deserts of the Madrid,the rolling hills of landscape and bold scenery,hardened men from the the way of life growing up in the old west,where survival was a reliable .44 and violence was just an ordinary daily routine and the woman were mainly the Ladies of the night of the local saloons and the music,the music in these films always seem to fit each scene,giving it that western feel or touch,kind of like,ghost riders in the sky,although some scores should have been shot,and don't forget the "go for the gold" plot,just remember,A Fistful of Dollars,started it all.

This 1964 film was the first of what came to be called "Spaghetti Westerns" and took then TV star Clint Eastwood and made him into a major Movie Star. If you look on IMDG at Clint Eastwood's career you will be amazed at how rich and varied it has been. Star of all kinds of movies, director of many films, producer, writer, and much more. Just amazing.

This film is Sergio Leone's remake of Kurosawa's wonderful "Yojimbo" (1961) and uses guns instead of swords just as John Sturges's "The Magnificent Seven" had done with "The Seven Samurai" (1954) in 1960. In both films, an unnamed stranger shows up in a town torn between two crime families. The stranger proves his ability with a gun in one and a sword in the other. He is courted by both sides, and angers both by taking payment and doing `chores' for both sides. A local tavern owner and a carpenter employed making coffins befriends him and pay for that later. The stranger also sees a family whom he helps to his terrible cost.

In the end, he gets the two sides to fight and all but destroy each other while he cleans up those who remain on the winning side.

Eastwood uses such a taciturn style that it became a trademark for many years. He uses few words, and the fighting comes in separated torrents rather than wall-to-wall blood as it might have seemed in 1964.

Rated R for violence that seems somewhat tame by today's standards. We see worse and more gruesome stuff on almost any episode of CSI.

A classic that is worth seeing or seeing again.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

This is one of the "man with no name" spaghetti western movies. Clint, bounty hunter, rides into a town where his horse is scared off by several of the local bullies and leaves Clint horseless and hanging onto a saloon sign. After a drink and chat with the bartender, he approaches the thugs and asks them to apologize to his horse. They try to draw on him, but, in cool fashion, Clint guns them all down. Later, he recognizes an opportunity to be a hired gun for one of the town's gang families. Things are going well for him in playing both sides against each other until he gives in to a moment of conscience. He pays for it, but comes back to deal out some hard western justice.

Here's where it all began: the first of director Sergio Leone's "spaghetti westerns" and the movie that launched Clint Eastwood's career. Leone and Eastwood would go on to have many triumphs both together and apart, but when this film is stripped of its historical importance what's left is an average-at-best western. A low-budget affair marred by ugly photography and bad audio dubbing, FISTFUL's thin plot is cribbed from Kurosawa's YOJIMBO (and, indirectly, Dashiell Hammett's novel RED HARVEST) but lacks the artistry of its sources. The result is a disappointingly dull, uninvolving film. Even its meager compensations--some decent action sequences and a great Ennio Morricone score--would be topped in later efforts. This has none of the operatic grandeur or masterful vision with which we associate Leone; if you're looking for a good entry point into his work, check out the brilliant ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST. This one's safe to skip.