"When a man with a .45 meets a man with a rifle, the man with a pistol will be a dead man."— Raṃn Rojo
A Fistful of Dollars is
the 1964 (originally unauthorized) remake of the Japanese film
Yojimbo. It's the first in what's known as The
Dollars Trilogy by Western fans, and was followed by
For A Few Dollars More and
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
The Man With No Name (played by
Clint Eastwood and called "Joe" by the coffin maker) wanders into a small poverty-stricken town on the Mexican border dominated by two feuding crime gangs, the
Rojos and the Baxters, and he decides to play the clans against each other, ostensibly so that he can profit from their conflict. The opportunity arises in the form of a Mexican shipment of gold passing through the town. However, his sympathies for Marisol, a hostage of the Rojos gang, leads to a change in plans with near-fatal consequences for the Man With No Name.
The gunfight at the end is the most famous part of the film.
Back to the Future: Part III directly homages it, among other
Shout Outs to this movie.
A Fistful ofDollars provides examples of the following tropes:
- Affably Evil: The Baxters. Unlike the Rojo Brothers, they are much more affable and less brutal in nature.
- Animated Credits Opening
- Anti-Hero: Joe
- Arc Words: "When you shoot to kill, aim for the heart." Ramon takes his mantra a little too seriously.
- Badass: In his own way, The Man With No Name is perhaps the most dangerous man who ever lived.
- He's a psycho, but Ramon, as played by Gian Maria Valonte, is pretty badass as well.
- Badass Beard: Joe; Ramon. Notable in Joe's case as traditional Western heroes up to this point tended to be cleanshaven.
- Bandito: The Rojos.
- Big Bad: Ramon.
- Blasting It Out Of Their Hands: Joe towards Ramon, though it's clearly a display of bravado rather than mercy (and the gun was empty anyway).
- Bloodless Carnage: Compare the machine-gun massacre scene in this movie with the final shootout of The Wild Bunch.
- Bulletproof Vest: Joe fashions one out of scrap metal before the film's climax, giving him a chance against Ramon and his rifle.
- The Chessmaster: Joe
- Cold Sniper: Ramon.
- Crippling The Competition: The bad guys stomp on Joe's hands while beating him.
- Deadpan Snarker: It's a movie starring Clint Eastwood, so take a guess...
- The Dragon: Esteban.
- The Drifter: The classic Western example.
- Enemy Civil War: The Man With No Name deliberately starts this between The Baxters and The Rojos.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Don Miguel look shocked when Esteban shoots Consuela.
- Evil Genius: Ramon. He's the only one of the villains who has a clue about Joe, and seems to be the Rojos' planner as well.
- Evil Matriarch: Mrs. Baxter is the real brains in her family.
- False Flag Operation: The Rojos pretend to be American soldiers to steal the gold shipment from the Mexican Army. They've already killed the Americans and position the bodies to make it look like they killed each other.
- Faux Affably Evil: Ramon.
- Faux Fluency: Gian Maria Volonte didn't speak a word of English; on set, he recited his lines in Italian, and for the English dub he learned his lines phonetically.
- The Family That Slays Together: The Rojo brothers and the Baxters are both family gangs.
- Feuding Families
- Foreign Remake: Again, of Yojimbo. The writers didn't credit Kurosawa at first, and as a result he had to sue them.
- For the Evulz: This is the only reason in Ramon. He is just an inhuman bastard who enjoys killing and robbing.
- Gatling Good: The Rojos steal some gold from the Mexican army, largely thanks to being able to mow down about 100 soldiers with an old time Gatling Gun.
- Giggling Villain: Esteban
- Gray and Black Morality
- Guile Hero
- The Gunslinger
- The Heavy: Ramon
- Hollywood Healing: Not as bad as Yojimbo, as Clint Eastwood's character does take some time to recover from his injuries.
- Honor Before Reason: At the end of the movie, Joe has killed all of Ramon's associates, tricked him into using up all the bullets in his rifle, and shot the rifle out of his hands for good measure. Instead of just shooting the defenseless Ramon, however, he empties his own gun and throws it on the ground, just so he and Ramon can have a who-can-pick-up-their-gun-reload-it-and-shoot-the-other-guy-first contest.
- Improvised Armour: The metal chest piece.
- Ironic Name: Chico, which is Spanish for "Tiny".
- Irony: At the start of the film, Joe is giving Piripero most of his business. Unfortunately for Piripero, Joe's cleared out most of his customers by the end of the film. Though, the bodies pile up at a fast enough rate at one point that they just don't bother with coffins anyway.
- Jerkass: Ramon and Esteban Rojo
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Joe
- Kick the Dog: Ramon, when he massacred a Mexican army unit in his first appearance and when he brutally tortures Silvanito.
- Knight Errant: Joe
- Mexicans With Machine Guns
- Mob War
- Murder Is the Best Solution: Ramon sets up two mass murders within several days rather than try more subtle methods or be content to accept an enemy's surrender.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: For much of the movie, the Man With No Name is only out to make some quick cash, and while he's doing that he's all but invincible in fights and plays all the other characters for suckers. It's only when he tries to do something nice by helping Marisol and her family escape that the bad guys get wise to him and deliver a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown
- No Name Given: The coffinmaker refers to him as Joe. Might as well.
- One Bullet Left
- Only in It for the Money: Joe. In his words: "That crazy bellringer was right. There's money to be made in a place like this." Though, he does offer a good amount of his earnings to the family he rescues from the hands of the Rojos.
- Only Sane Man: Silvanito, the bartender, who at first reluctantly befriends Joe.
- Pet the Dog: The protagonist saves a family caught in between the troubles of the two Gang of Hats, making him seem less amoral. The family is so damn thankful, Joe practically has to shoo them in order for them to leave. And with good reason: dire consequences would befall both if they don't.
- Power Trio: The Rojo Bros.
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner: After verifying that John Baxter wasn't kidding when he surrendered, Ramon tells him to take up his surrender terms with his wife and says, "Maybe she won't be too happy," before shooting him.
- Recycled In Space: Yojimbo WITH COWBOYS! Not that there's anything wrong with that.
- Revolvers Are Just Better: Ramon attempts to subvert this in the page quote. It doesn't go well. He is trying it with Clint after all... which is usually a bad idea. The movie really plays with the trope, though. Joe doesn't win the shootout because his revolver is inherently better than Ramon's rifle. He wins because he utilises his weapon's strengths to exploit the weaknesses of Ramon's.
- Showdown at High Noon
- Siblings in Crime: The Rojo brothers.
- Smoking Is Cool
- The Sociopath: Ramon and Esteban Rojo.
- South of the Border
- Spaghetti Western
- The Slow Walk
- Weapon of Choice: Revolvers vs. Rifles is actually a plot point.
- Would Hit a Girl
- One of the Rojo brothers guns down Mrs. Baxter without a second thought.
- There's also the quite shocking moment where The Man With No Name punches a woman in the face, thinking she was a man trying to kill him. Good luck finding a movie these days that will show the hero doing that even by accident.
- Would Hurt a Child: To demonstrate how horrible that is Ramon, he has the children of the kidnapped mother (a 6 years old kid) threatened to death if she is not given.
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