62 Years Later, Clint Eastwood’s 10/10 Western Still Outshines Every Other

In the early ‘60s, Clint Eastwood was a disgruntled cast member of the CBS hour-long Western series Rawhide. He wanted something better. He wanted to be a movie star. “I did get awfully tired of playing the conventional white hat… the hero who kisses dogs and was kind to everybody… so I decided it was time to be an antihero,” Eastwood said in Howard Hughes’ book, Once Upon A Time in the Italian West. The actor was thus quick to accept when he was offered a role by the then little-known Italian director Sergio Leone in A Fistful of Dollars.

Clint Eastwood got the part after his Rawhide co-star Eric Fleming declined, believing an Italian-made Western could never be a hit. Producer Richard Harrison suggested Eastwood to Leone for the role, and the actor agreed to sign on for $15,000 in wages for three months’ work, with a bonus of a Mercedes-Benz car upon completion. Today, A Fistful of Dollars sits at the top (or close to the top) in many lists of the greatest Westerns of all time. But what makes it so good?

‘A Fistful of Dollars’ Proved Western Movies Didn’t Need Traditional Law-Abiding Heroes

In A Fistful of Dollars, Clint Eastwood’s unnamed antihero character (later nicknamed “Joe”) arrives at the tiny frontier town of San Miguel. There, the innkeeper Silvanito tells him about a feud between two smuggler families fighting for control of the town: the Rojo brothers and the family of the town sheriff, John Baxter. Members of both factions have the temperament (and intelligence) of a nasty five-year-old boy – they like to curse out and reach for their weapons – so “Joe” decides to play them against each other for profit. But how long can he keep this up?

Adapted from Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo, A Fistful of Dollars was made on a shoestring ($200,000), but the the film’s limited budget and lack of gloss are a blessing, giving the Spaghetti Western some crudeness and grittiness that are perfectly matched to its hardboiled content. Nothing helps the mood of such a movie more than a set draped in dirt. And a good director never needs money to ensure good characterization, so Eastwood’s character emerges as an emblem of respectability and a realist, all while helping to highlight the divergent aims of local politics and capitalism.

Eastwood might have built a reputation for being grumpy in his more recent roles, but here he gives a relaxed, lived-in performance. He is unbelievably sly in each of his scenes, and Sergio Leone rewards him with lovely closeups all the time. Leone, too, deserves a lot of credit for the manner in which he pulls us into the turmoil. As alliances bloom and others fall, we feel compelled to stick around until the credits roll.

Clint Eastwood is the Shiniest Diamond in ‘A Fistful of Dollars’

Clint Eastwood Stars in A Fistful of Dollars (1964)

Among Clint Eastwood’s Westerns, the installments of the Dollars trilogy, consisting of A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad & the Ugly, alongside Unforgiven, are often singled out as the best. In the trilogy, the last film is considered superior because of its theme song, cinematography, and plot. It even has the best quotes. However, the first film is arguably the best Clint Eastwood Western because of how he outshines his co-stars. Gian Maria Volonté and Marianne Koch are great, but, like Lionel Messi or LeBron James with their teammate, Eastwood appears to be operating from a higher, mysterious realm.

Such cannot be said of Eastwood’s other three Western classics. In For a Few Dollars More, Lee Van Cleef is outstanding as Colonel Douglas Mortimer. I even liked him more than Eastwood in the movie. His quote, “When two hunters go after the same prey, they usually end up shooting each other in the back,” has never left my mind. In The Good, the Bad & the Ugly, Van Cleef matches Eastwood again. And Eli Wallach? He gives a better performance than Eastwood as the bandit, Tuco Ramirez. What about Unforgiven? That’s the Gene Hackman show. Morgan Freeman also.

A Fistful of Dollars is thus the only great Western movie where Clint Eastwood is dominant. In it, he establishes the trademark stare and posture that he has used in so many movies. In addition to that, he perfects his economical acting style. Like great sports players, Eastwood appears sluggish most of the time, but whenever he is thrust into a do-or-die moment, he comes out on top. Cases can be made for High Plains Drifter or The Outlaw Josey Wales, but these are good westerns… not great Westerns.