Wandering Problem Solver
Eastwood is the ‘man with no name,’ although in this particular film he is referred to as Joe by a couple of the locals. Eastwood wanders into a small Mexican town called San Miguel at the outset of the film. Upon arriving, he is told by a local that he will either become very rich, or be killed. You see, this town is under the control of two rival families who basically live at opposite ends of the small town. On the one hand, you have the Rojos, would deal in liquor. The other family, the Baxters, deal in weapons. Both families are rich, but there is constant killing between the two and the local coffin maker, Piripero (played by Joseph Egger) is a very busy man.
Not minutes after Eastwood arrives, some of the Baxter boys give him trouble. He stays with a disgruntled local barkeeper, Silvanito (Jose Calvo), and learns more about the town. He finds himself in the middle of the Rojos and Baxters, literally, and rather than drift on to another town, puts his brains and brawn to use to end the cycle of violence and control the two families have over San Miguel.
Pitting the two families against one another while secretly maintaining favor with both of them is a difficult task, but it’s something that ‘Joe’ manages to do for most of the film. Ultimately he must face the most ruthless killer in town, Ramon (Gian Maria Volonte). Ramon is a crackshot with a rifle, and the two have several verbal run-ins before finally squaring off in a classic scene in the end. Despite the grim nature of the movie and lots of shooting and dying, Leone and Eastwood manage to slip in some brief comedic bits that work nicely.
There’s a lot to like about this movie, generally speaking, but it’s also one of those where you have to ‘look the other way’ as far as some of the decisions the characters make. In other words, you have to suspend belief a healthy amount to really enjoy Fistful, but that’s not really such a bad thing.
On Blu-ray
Presented in 2:35:1 widescreen with an overall clean image, A Fistful of Dollars looks pretty darn good on Blu-ray. It maintains a steady, but slight, grain to it, but that could be seen as being intended anyway given the nature of the movie. Audio options include English and French 5.1 DTS-HD, with English and Spanish mono tracks to boot.
There are a bunch of extra features included, although I believe they are identical to the Trilogy release as is the presentation quality:
-Audio Commentary with Film Historian Sir Christopher Frayling
-The Christopher Frayling Archives: Fistful of Dollars (18m40s, HD) – Vintage stills and a variety of posters and records from around the world are shown, pretty neat.
-A New Kind of Hero (22m54s, SD) – This is an older Christopher Frayling special about the film; lots of clips and still images from the movie are shown as he talks about the movie.
-A Few Weeks In Spain: Clint Eastwood On the Experience of Making the Film (8m33s, SD) – An older Eastwood interview where he reminisces about making A Fistful of Dollars.
-Tre Voci: Fistful of Dollars (11m12s)
-Not Ready For Primetime (6m20s, SD) – Monte Hellman talks about the original TV broadcast of the movie.
-The Network Prologue (7m44s, SD)
-Location Comparisons: Then To Now (5m22s, SD) – Still image comparisons of what the land looked like in 1964 and 2004.
-10 Radio Spots (6m, with SD still images shown while the radio promo plays).
-Double Bill Trailer (2m3s, SD)
–A Fistful of Dollars Trailer (2m26s, SD)
With that, lets get to the summary…