I decided to finally sit down and start “The Man With No Name” trilogy, which of course starts with A Fistful of Dollars. I was definitely a little bit nervous before I watched it, as I wasn’t sure it was going to be for me, because I really haven’t seen many Western films before besides Django Unchained, which I thought was pretty good, but not a film I see myself revisiting, to be honest. A Fistful of Dollars is a pretty simple story about a guy who goes by the name of Joe (at least for this film), played by Clint Eastwood, who enters a Mexican village, where there is a sort of divide and conflict between a group of people called the Rojos and a group of people under the sheriff of the village, named John Baxter. Joe gets himself in the middle of this division, constantly switching between sides in order to heighten the conflict for his own gain.

And Joe was definitely the highlight of the film for me. As far as I know, he was one of the first big anti-heroes, at least as far as the more iconic ones go, so seeing the influence he’s had on several characters I’ve seen in other movies was pretty neat. He’s obviously meant to be the protagonist, but he definitely does some morally questionable things along the way, which makes him a lot more complex and interesting for this kind of film than if he had been a straight-up good hero. He’s also extremely well played by Clint Eastwood, who made him a fairly unpredictable and, to put it simply, cool character that made it hard to take your eyes off of the screen whenever he appeared.

The visuals and setting were also surprisingly good in my opinion, too. With it being set in one small location for the most part, it could have easily been a little bit boring and uninteresting, but thankfully, it wasn’t. Everything was shot really well, and I felt completely immersed in this time period, for what it is worth. As someone who hasn’t really seen many Western films, this definitely did a good job of getting me into that kind of genre and style for a movie.

One influence that I noticed this film had that I certainly wasn’t expecting was the score, which I thought was amazing. It was a really catchy score, sparingly used, however, for the purpose of tension and intrigue, which worked really well. It also sounded extremely familiar, almost like I had heard it before, which was how I came to notice the influence it’s had in, I’ll say it again, other films that I’ve seen.

Even though they were pretty dated, the gunfights were pretty cool to watch as well. They were definitely over-the-top, but also extremely entertaining and exciting, so it’s a pro for me. For a film made in the 1960s, the direction and editing were surprisingly good, with the way it cut back and forth between both sides. They were not only exciting but also pretty intense as well as memorable, as there were plenty of pretty iconic shots, especially some with Clint Eastwood onscreen.

The only reason I don’t rate it any higher is that the story frankly wasn’t all that interesting to me. I think that Clint Eastwood, as the main character/unethical hero, kind of carried the film and was really the only reason I was all that invested in what was happening. Besides that, it didn’t feel like much was going on narratively, and the story was honestly, I think, a little too simple to be engaging. It somewhat repeats itself over and over again, with Joe manipulating and tricking one side, which leads to some sort of conflict, only for him, as well as the viewer, to kind of simply just stand by and watch everything unfold. This was interesting at first, but it started to feel a little bit repetitive after a while.

As the first sort of pure Western, or “Spaghetti Western,” as it is commonly called, though, I quite enjoyed it. I think what it did well, it did really well, mainly setting up this interesting character that hopefully sets the tone for the rest of the trilogy. Overall, I would say I’m looking forward to checking out the next two films, especially The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, which I’ve come to hear is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, Western film ever made.