History YMMV / AFistfulOfDollars

** Ramon Rojo (the BigBad) is undeniably evil, not only prevails this territory when he forces a woman to live with him (trying to rape her as well), and threatens to kill her young son if she is not given over. His most monstrous moment is massacring the entire Baxter family, including the matriarch, and Ramon, along with his thugs, just laughs, as they kill every family member.
** His brother Esteban crosses it by killing the matriarch herself as she curses them for killing everyone, especially her unarmed husband and son who were trying to ''surrender'' to save their skins. Both of his brothers react with subdued shock, and when even ''[[EvenEvilHasStandards Ramon]]'' looks visibly creeped out by someone else's atrocity, that's a MEH right there.

* OvershadowedByControversy: The film's nature as an unauthorized ''Film/{{Yojimbo}}'' remake and the lawsuit that resulted from this generally see more discussion nowadays than the film itself.

* GenreTurningPoint: For the Spaghetti Western. Contrary to a persistent belief, ''Fistful'' was '''not''' the first Italian Western, a subgenre which [[OlderThanTheyThink went all the way back to the silent era]] (Leone's father Vincenzo even directed a few in the late 1910s). In addition, Hollywood Westerns were extremely popular in postwar Italy, which inspired a small but steady trickle of Westerns made by Italian filmmakers during the '50s and '60s, albeit in nowhere near the numbers they would after ''Fistful''. That said, most Spaghetti Westerns prior to ''Fistful'' were merely copies of American Westerns, and generally of poor quality. Leone (along with Bruno Bezzetto, who began making ''WesternAnimation/WestAndSoda'' two years prior) was the first director to give the subgenre its distinct, iconic style, BlackAndGreyMorality and lasting cultural impact.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Do the words Music/EnnioMorricone mean anything to you?

* ChaoticNeutral: Joe, who bounces between ChaoticNeutral and ChaoticGood.
-->The Rojos on one side of town, the Baxters on the other, and me right in the middle. Crazy bellringer was right, there's money to be made in a place like this."

* EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory: The movie is rife with subtle religious imagery. The dinner party at the Rojos, for instance, is cleverly made to resemble Da Vinci's 'Last Supper'. Marisol's escape with her family is vaguely reminiscent of Mary and Joseph's Flight to Egypt, with both children being named Jesus (Or Jesús in this case), and Joe's torture brings the Flagellation of Christ to mind.

* WhatAnIdiot: Ramon and his men freak out over Joe's apparent inability to die when Ramon shoots him repeatedly with his rifle, yet it never occurs to Ramon to try shooting Joe in the head, nor does it occur to him or his men to just open fire indiscriminately when Joe reveals he was wearing a crude bullet proof vest the whole time.
** Sort of a justified trope as in an early scene, Joe calls out Ramon for not doing a head shot during a practice shoot. Ramon believes that to really kill a man you must aim for the heart. Joe counted on it and called him on it during the aforementioned bulletproof vest scene. There's also the fact that at the time, a truly bulletproof vest was almost unheard of.

* GenreTurningPoint: For the Spaghetti Western. Contrary to a persistent belief, ''Fistful'' was '''not''' the first Italian Western, a subgenre which [[OlderThanTheyThink went all the way back to the silent era]] (Leone's father Vincenzo even directed a few in the late 1910s). In addition, Hollywood Westerns were extremely popular in postwar Italy, which inspired a small but steady trickle of Westerns made by Italian filmmakers during the '50s and '60s, albeit in nowhere near the numbers they would after ''Fistful''. That said, most Spaghetti Westerns prior to ''Fistful'' were merely copies of American Westerns, and generally of poor quality. Leone (along with Bruno Bezzetto, who began making ''WesternAnimation/WestAndSoda'' two years prior) was the first director to give the subgenre its distinct, iconic style, GrayAndGreyMorality and lasting cultural impact.

* SpecialEffectFailure: Due to the low budget, the gatling gun massacre of the Mexican army is an unintentionally BloodlessMassacre due the lack of any squibs or other blood effects.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: Creator/SergioLeone requested Music/EnnioMorricone to write a theme that would be similar to Dimitri Tiomkin's ''El Degüello'' (used in ''Film/RioBravo''). Although the two themes are similar, Morricone states that he used a lullaby he had composed before and developed the theme from that. He adds that what makes the two themes similar is the execution, not the arrangement.

* FauxSymbolism: The movie is rife with subtle religious imagery. The dinner party at the Rojos, for instance, is cleverly made to resemble Da Vinci's 'Last Supper'. Marisol's escape with her family is vaguely reminiscent of Mary and Joseph's Flight to Egypt, with both children being named Jesus, and Joe's torture brings the Flagellation of Christ to mind.

* GenreTurningPoint: For the Spaghetti Western. Contrary to a persistent belief, ''Fistful'' was '''not''' the first Italian Western, a subgenre which [[OlderThanTheyThink went all the way back to the silent era]] (Leone's father Vincenzo even directed a few in the late 1910s). In addition, Hollywood Westerns were extremely popular in postwar Italy, and there had been a small but steady trickle of Westerns made by Italian filmmakers during the '50s and '60s, albeit in nowhere near the numbers they would after ''Fistful''. That said, most Spaghetti Westerns prior to ''Fistful'' were merely copies of American Westerns, and generally of poor quality. Leone (along with Bruno Bezzetto, who began making ''WesternAnimation/WestAndSoda'' two years prior) was the first director to give the subgenre its distinct, iconic style, GrayAndGreyMorality and lasting cultural impact.

** Ramon Rojo (the BigBad) is undeniably evil, not only prevails this territory when he forces (and tries to rape) a woman to live with him and threatens to kill her young son if she is not given, his most monstrous moment was having massacred the entire Baxter family, including the matriarch, and Ramon just laughs killing every family member, as do his thugs.

* CompleteMonster: [[BigBad Ramon Rojo]] just seems to [[ForTheEvulz enjoy being evil]]. [[EstablishingCharacterMoment In his first appearance]], he and his gang brutally massacre a Mexican army unit to steal their gold. He kidnaps a woman and forces her to live with him, claiming that her husband was cheating him at cards. He slaughters the rival Baxter family as they try to surrender to him, tortures "[[TheDrifter Joe]]" for helping the woman he kidnapped escape, and, towards the end, has [[OlderSidekick Silvanito]] tortured when he thinks he might be hiding Joe and is about to hang him when Joe interrupts. That's in addition to being an ArrogantKungFuGuy regarding his skill with the [[WeaponOfChoice rifle]], an extreme {{Jerkass}} in his interactions with everybody, and the [[EvilGenius brains]] of a gang of illegal rum-runners who keeps a stranglehold on the life of a [[DyingTown small town]].

** His brother Esteban crosses it by killing the matriarch herself as she curses them for killing everyone, especially her unarmed husband and son who were trying to ''surrender'' to save their skins. Both of his brothers react with subdued shock, and when even ''Ramon'' looks visibly creeped out by someone else's atrocity, that's a MEH right there.

* CounterpartComparison: Joe and [[Film/{{Yojimbo}} Sanjuro]]. Sanjuro is gruff, middle-aged, crass, and confident. Joe, on the other hand, is younger, sprier and drier-witted.
** Silvanito is a direct counterpart of Gonji. However, Silvanito goes out of his way to accompany Joe on his missions.
** Don Benito/Don Miguel and Ushitora. Ushitora is only somewhat upstaged by his brother Unosuke, while Don Miguel is completely sidelined by Ramon.
** Ramon and Unosuke. Both are more or less the same: GunCrazy sociopaths who do all the dirty work.
** The only thing Esteban and Inokichi have in common is their roles within their families. Other than that the two are complete opposites in personality. Esteban is TheHyena, while Inokichi is a comical DumbMuscle.
** Chico and Kannuki are both a GiantMook who deliver a nasty beating to TheHero. However, Chico is killed off earlier.
** Consuelo Baxter and Orin. Both are the EvilMatriarch of their families, except that Consuelo is much gentler and more sympathetic, whereas Orin is more of a BadBoss who mistreats the women who work for her and openly plots to get Sanjuro on her side to help her family overthrow Ushitora.
** Marisol and Nui are pretty much exactly alike, both being a DamselInDistress separated from their family.

* MostAnnoyingSound: Jesús, Marisol's son, whining and crying, which may come off being more obnoxious in the English language dub due to the poor quality of the English actor (or actress) dubbing the kid.

* MagnificentBastard: "Blondie" qualifies, see the [[YMMV/DollarsTrilogy main page]] for details.