Fistful of Dollars'

Gunfighter

Coffin maker

Now I'm reviewing Fistful of Dollars; a film that started off not only Clint Eastwood's career but also the spaghetti western genre. It's about a lone gunfighter with no name (Clint Eastwood) who walks into a trade town where there are a set of feuding families: the bandito like Rojo Brothers led by Ramon (Gian Maria Volonte) and the family of the town sheriff: the Baxters. TThe gunfighter spys a way to make money and decides to turn the families against one another whilst he's making a fistful of dollars in the process. He does this when a group of Mexican soldiers are delivering a vast quantity of gold to the river where it's being delivered to American soldiers in exchange for weaponry but the Rojo brothers have disguised themselves as the Americans and shoot the cavalry to take the gold. The gunfighter takes 2 bodies to the graveyard and sells info to both families that 2 soldiers survived the attack, both families rush to the cemeteries for different reasons: the Baxters to get them to testify and the Rojos to shoot them. A gunfight ensues and Ramon captures the Baxter's son Antonio, meanwhile, the gunfighter searches the Rojo's hacienda to search for the gold but he knocks out Ramon's unwilling mistress Marisol (Marianne Koch) when she surprises him, he hands her over to the Baxters and a swap is arranged. That night, the gunfighter frees Marisol from Ramon's house and gets her to run away with her son and real husband. The Rojos capture and beat him up but he escapes with help from the coffin maker (Joseph Egger), he witnesses the Rojo's burning down the Baxter's home so the Rojos now rule the town. The gunfighter goes to duel the Rojo's, he rescues the barkeeper (Jose Calvo), and no matter how many times he's shot he won't die; this is because he has a steel plate hidden under his shirt, he challenges Ramon to reload his rifle faster than he can reload his pistol, he shoots Ramon and the remaining Rojo's and leaves town.

Ramon

This is an iconic film that made a genre, it's quite dated and sometimes there's obvious dubbing but it's exhilarating, fast paced and the characters are brilliant. There's some odd slapstick comedy in there as well (the gunfighter shoots the ropes off the hacienda door and it knocks out a guard) all round a good film

Verdict: 7.5/10