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* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Just why exactly did Joe/The Man With No Name feel compelled to insert himself into the feud between the Rojos and the Baxters? Was it really all because the plight of the family reminded him of something tragic from his past, or was he guided by some other force? His mysterious persona leaves it open to all sorts of interpretations.
** In fact, the mystery annoyed TV network execs so much that when the film premiered on TV an opening was filmed with Creator/HarryDeanStanton acting as a marshal hiring Joe to take care of the Rojos in exchange for a reduced prison sentence. Since Creator/ClintEastwood himself was not available an actor roughly matching his size and build was given a rough replica of his costume and filmed with a hat over his face to cover for the fact that he wasn't Eastwood.
* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: Basically Jolly Films' attitude towards the movie: they viewed ''Fistful'' as a cheap write-off to reuse sets and costumes from a previous Western, ''Gunfight at Red Sands''. They also initially gave it a limited release, partly due to the legal troubles over its resemblance to ''Film/{{Yojimbo}}'', dumping it as the second feature on double bills. Eventually it became a hit in Italy through word-of-mouth, which earned it an international release, [[Film/ForAFewDollarsMore a sequel]], [[Film/TheGoodTheBadAndTheUgly a prequel]], and a fistful of legal troubles.
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Does the name Music/EnnioMorricone mean anything to you?
* CompleteMonster: [[AxCrazy Ramon Rojo]], [[EstablishingCharacterMoment in his first appearance]], along with his gang brutally massacres 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. He is also the brains of a gang of illegal rum-runners who keeps a stranglehold on the life of a [[DyingTown small town]].
* 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. Then he goes into a cave, and re-emerges later, healed and fit, like the resurrection.
* EvilIsCool: Ramon, being an {{Expy}} of [[Film/{{Yojimbo}} Unosuke]], may be AxCrazy, but he sure is tough.
* GenreTurningPoint: For the SpaghettiWestern. 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.
* MagnificentBastard: The Man with No Name. See the [[YMMV/DollarsTrilogy main page]] for details.
* MemeticBadass: Though fans are fully aware the Man With No Name is being facetious about his mule, it is nevertheless popular to take the joke at face value. Illustrations of how the mule strikes fear into the hearts of his enemies, or more comically how fans who downvote clips from the movie should apologize to his mule before he gets the "wrong idea" are not uncommon.
* MemeticMutation: The Man With No Name's Poncho, Hat and [[SmokingIsCool Cigar]].
* MoralEventHorizon:
** 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 Baxter family and their men (almost forty people altogether, every single one of whom was willing to surrender), as Ramon, along with his thugs and brothers, just laughs hysterically throughout the killings.
** Ramon's brother Esteban crosses it by killing the Baxter matriarch as she curses them for killing everyone, especially her unarmed husband and son. 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.
* NarmCharm: "Joe" demanding an apology on behalf of his mule would be utterly laughable if it wasn't part of one of the most badass {{Establishing Character Moment}}s of all time:
-->"My mistake. ''Four'' coffins."
* NightmareFuel: Ramon Rojo is easily the most terrifying character in the whole film.
* OvershadowedByControversy: Not nearly ''overshadowed'' considering its own influence and legacy, but the movie's nature as an unofficial remake of ''Film/{{Yojimbo}}'', and the subsequent lawsuit, are pretty well known things about it.
* SignatureScene: There are three scenes generally in contention for this.
** First is the EstablishingCharacterMoment for Joe. He rides into town, only to be insulted and harassed by a trio of Baxter's men. He goes to settle with them, passing the undertaker along the way and telling the old man to prepare three coffins. He picks a fight with the Baxter men, (who have since been joined by a fourth) easily guns them all down with the QuickDraw that would make Clint Eastwood famous, then walks away, telling the undertaker to make it four coffins.
** The most popular choice is the final showdown with the Rojo brothers and their men. Joe sets off some dynamite out of town then lets the wind carry it into town, seeming to just appear out of the smoke. He then baits Ramon, the only truly dangerous member of the group, into wasting all his ammo on the hidden bulletproof vest he has under his poncho. After that he wipes the group out, temporarily sparing Ramon only so he can defeat Ramon one on one while throwing Ramon's insistence on the superiority of the rifle in Ramon's face.
** The darkhorse choice would be the Rojo brothers slaughtering the Baxters, if only because of how shockingly brutal and gut wrenching it is, arguably moreso than in ''Film/{{Yojimbo}}''.
* SpecialEffectFailure: Due to the low budget, the gatling gun massacre of the Mexican army is unintentionally BloodlessCarnage 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 (from his cover of Woody Guthrie's ''Pastures of Plenty'') and developed the theme from that. He adds that what makes the two themes similar is the execution, not the arrangement.
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