Viking Night: A Fistful of Dollars
By Bruce Hall
May 8, 2012
BoxOfficeProphets.com

Is the Man with No Name doing his nails?
So you think Hollywood is out of ideas, because the remake machine is an insatiable beast whose unholy hunger can never be satisfied? Well, have you heard the one about the Samurai film, inspired by the American Western, based on the noir crime novel that inspired the Italian Western that was filmed in Spain that in turn redefined the nature of American film forever? The Western as you know it might not be as American as you thought. But that's okay - people have been borrowing each other’s ideas for as long as people have had ideas. And lawn mowers.

So calm yourself; that’s what storytelling is all about. It's the exchange and redefinition of old ideas into new ones. And lawn mowers.

The things we find familiar today were new to people at some point, maybe even revolutionary. In the present, people swap their cell phones every three months but there was a time when a mobile was an expensive luxury, and if you had one you kept it for years. If you wanted to be a writer you stayed home and did it with a word processor and a bottle of scotch. Doing it in front of a coffee shop with a laptop was unheard of, because back then laptops weighed 47 pounds, and coffee had not been invented yet.

But I digress. What you find familiar and boring today was at one time cutting edge, and in cinema you can easily trace the genesis of these moments. One of the most significant happened when everyone in Hollywood turned down the lead in some ridiculous low budget flick set to shoot over in Spain. Besides, it was a Western. Nobody liked those any more. This was 1964. People liked war movies. They liked movies about angry young men on motorcycles. They liked watching Sean Connery wear a tuxedo while he killed people. They liked The Beatles. But they didn't like Westerns.

Or maybe they did like Westerns. They just didn't like the kinds of Westerns people were making. The genre hadn’t evolved to fit the times. Audiences were more sophisticated now, and the whole Black Hats/White Hats thing was just so…1958. It was time for a new breed of American hero and obviously, an Italian guy named Sergio was the man for the job. He would direct, and Rowdy Yates would eventually star in it. Yeah, that one. Head 'em up, move ' em out. Maybe not so shocking today, but television actors making the leap to film was less common back then.

It’s hard to illustrate this in today’s terms except to say that in the opinion of many, the modern equivalent would be you getting to replace Tom Brady just because you won your office fantasy league. In reality, television was a vast resource for modern, forward thinking creative types just like the future Dirty Harry himself. Not like today, when it’s all Snooki and Jimmy Fallon and Fox News. Clint Eastwood was already well known because lots of people loved Rawhide. But believe it or not, there was a time before he had the power to buy and sell you like a used car.

That time was before this movie. A Fistful of Dollars is often overshadowed by its younger, more polished sibling - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. It's true that the latter ended up being the defining picture of its genre, but the original is the one that created that genre. Is this the Star Wars of Westerns? Is Clint Eastwood Han Solo? No, because Clint Eastwood could easily kick Han Solo's ass, even at his current age of 141.

But back in 1964, he played a Lone Wanderer who stumbles upon a desert town run by two ruthless gangs, the Rojos Brothers and the Baxter Gang. On the way into town the Wanderer has a run in with the Baxters. After, a sympathetic saloon owner hooks him up with some grub, some booze, and the tragic tale of how both gangs are bleeding the town dry. After a moment's reflection The Wanderer realizes he’s looking at competing hordes of power hungry meatheads whose understanding of strategy is limited to drinking games and farting contests. It could be a goldmine.

"There’s money to be made in a place like this", he says, and he’s right. If the Rojos can do it, someone with an actual brain could be running the town in a week. He devises a cunning plan to get the better of the two gangs and walk away a rich man in the process. The problem is, the Rojos aren’t all as dumb as they look, and the Baxters aren’t about to go down without a fight. Add a detachment of soldiers passing through town with a mysterious cargo and a local family in need, our Wanderer has his work cut out for him.

I'll admit the plot sounds familiar. That's either because you're a Kurosawa fan, or because A Fistful of Dollars is one of the most influential (and kick-ass) films of the 20th century. I know I don't have to tell you why Clint Eastwood is awesome. If I do, you're clearly with The Terrorists. It's not that this film invented the brooding antihero, or even the Lone Wanderer. But it did invent a new kind of Western, and influence a new kind of action hero in American cinema. We like 'em complex and morally ambiguous these days, because it fulfills a basic human need to feel superior to someone, even as you worship them.

The film's Japanese inspired cinematography suggested a whole new way to shoot an action picture. The innovative score was equal parts traditional and avant garde. And of course Eastwood's stoic sneer, battered hat and half chewed cigar are unquestionably recognizable. So much so that just by being himself, Eastwood probably got paid every time Chuck Bronson shot a guy, Mel Gibson said "I'm too old for this shit" or Bruce Willis said "yippie ki-yay..."

Okay, I don't wanna lose my PG-13. You get my point. Every time a handsome, virile stud like me says "Get three coffins ready" to you in an elevator, you'll know there's no need to call the police - because it's from a great movie. A Fistful of Dollars was a turning point in film history, and a lot of the things you liked about action heroes before Shia LaBeouf and Channing Tatum came along, you have this movie to thank for. And just think; it all started with a little detective novel by Dashiell Hammett.

Wait, what? Like I said, people have been borrowing each other’s ideas for as long as people have had ideas. It's how stories are told. It's how legends are made. It's how ballsy American action flicks became the envy of the world. Think about that for a minute; the obvious conclusion here is that were it not for Clint Eastwood and an Italian guy who didn't speak a lick of English, the United States of America would not be what it is today. You're welcome, Earth.