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What Joe finds is that San Miguel is a powder-keg waiting for a spark. Two clans control the gun and liquor trade in an uneasy stand-off, a conflict which has cleared the area of all non-combatants. At one end of the town resides John Baxter (Wolfgang Lukschy), with his smart wife Consuela (Margarita Lozano) and not so smart son Antonio (Bruno Carotenuto). Arrayed against them are the Rojo brothers, Ramon (Gian Maria Volonté), Esteban (Sieghardt Rupp) and Benito (Antonio Prieto). Both sides have a number of hired guns, but at the moment the Rojo family are strongest. After some cogitation, Joe completely ignores the advice of the barman (to leave and never come back), instead strolling into the street. With the attention of the Rojo's secured, he easily out-shoots some of Baxter's goons (not by chance the ones who tormented his mule earlier) and gains himself some employment.
By basing itself, almost scene-for-scene, upon the excellent samurai flick Yojimbo, A Fistful of Dollars ensures both a strong premise and a gripping storyline. The ever so simple set-up is that two families are at war over Yankee dollars, a circumstance ripe for the plucking by someone as cunning and amoral as Joe. Confident that he can simultaneously outwit the opponents and escalate the dispute for his own financial benefit, Joe embarks on a series of risky and improvised bluffs. The primary joy is thus in sharing the disbelief of the inn-keeper as he watches Joe walk a greasy tight-rope, coming close to disaster only when he commits his single unselfish act. As the corpses pile ever higher, flashes of humour serve to lighten the tone, many of these coming from the neutral coffin-maker. So, while the violence is ever-present, the consequences of this slaughter remain unshown.
As befits such a low budget production, A Fistful of Dollars is not exactly a master-class of the thespian arts. Eastwood is the best of a bad lot, though his inexperience ensures that "The Man with No Name" has yet to develop the stare or aura which surrounds him in later efforts. In fact, the entire film exhibits the effects of being the first spaghetti western. While this isn't Sergio Leone's directorial debut, it's clear that he has yet to perfect the use of suspense and impasse. In the same way, Ennio Morricone's score is serviceable but no more than that (introducing themes that are later refined). Thus A Fistful of Dollars winds up being a learning experience for all concerned. Basically it's a rough and ready series of gun-fights, interspersed with average dialogue and awful dubbing (which may well be part of the charm).
At a deeper level, there are two significant flaws which act to undermine A Fistful of Dollars. The first of these is that the clan bosses display immense stupidity (being duped by a pair of corpses that fail to flinch when a gun fight erupts overhead), even as they're meant to be fairly intelligent. As time passes it becomes increasingly difficult to believe that the townsfolk can be so gullible, yet this is what Leone requires. The second problem is that when swords are replaced by guns, the action is forced to spread beyond the borders of the town. This tends to dissipate the murderous tension at exactly the moment it should be reaching more intense and claustrophobic heights. Without the existence of Yojimbo and the fabulous performance of Toshiro Mifune, these drawbacks would probably be less apparent. This is the lot of any remake, however, and in this sense A Fistful of Dollars is not quite up to scratch.
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