A Fistful of Dollars (1964)

A Fistful of Dollars

I decided to take a break from my normal horror and scifi watching. Instead I decided I needed to brush up on my westerns. So where better to start than with a film that changed the genre, though to be fair, this is a "remake" of Kurosawa's Yojimbo.

The Good:
The character of "the man with no name" was truly created in this film. The essence of this character influenced films from this point on. The lonesome outsider who says very little and has his own sense of justice, you know him, whether it's from other westerns or cop dramas or Vampire Hunter D.
Clint Eastwood is great in the role.
It is a neat story about a town tormented by rival gangs, with a couple of interesting subplots thrown in.
The barkeep is an interesting character, fun and honorable.
I loved the coffin maker, he's a great dark comic relief character.
The music was cool, what I consider "real western music".

The Bad:
The ADR was terrible (that would be the "dubbing").
Sometimes the story kind of skipped, I'm not sure how to explain this, but I kept wondering, "Wait, how did that happen?" It just seemed not to explain certain parts of what happened in the story.
Some of the acting was not-so-good.

Overall: I give this one a Clint Eastwood squint, a guarded smile and 65 % Braveheart (please try to not take into account Mel Gibson is a horrible anti-Semitic dumbass).