Hey you! This is my third post and its again a film review.. This one is a western movie with a very famous actor: Clint Eastwood. Even its a good one among other western movies I still prefer Magnificent Seven though! even I know its redundant to compare them 🙂 (By the way its review will come soon either). I hope you’ll like it! Bye! ^.^
A Fistful of Dollars
Fistful of Dollars is a spaghetti western movie directed by Sergio Leone in 1964. Clint Eastwood plays as the main character in the movie. The film released in Italy in 1964 and in the United States in 1967. Collectively, the films are known as the “Dollars Triology”, or “The Man With No Name Trilogy”. It is an unofficial remake of the Akira Kurosawa film Yojimbo (1961).*
I didn’t see the film of Yojimbo by Kurosawa so I didn’t know that whether story line is all same or not, however I see some relations between Spanish Civil War and ‘A fistful of Dollars’.
In the early 1930s, Spanish government divided into two parts: the socialists of the extreme left and the monarchists of the extreme right. In 1936, the left won the elections. Generals Goded, Mola, and Francisco Franco disagreed with the leftist enforcements and decided to overthrow the government. The military Nationalists/Fascists took help from Mussolini and Hitler. The Republicans received support only from the Soviet Union. Soviet tanks were superior to the Germans’ but Republicans did not use them. On 1937, the small northern town of Guernica was bombed by the Nationalists. In this brutal massacre 1500 civilians died and 800 were wounded. As dead bodies increased, the Republican government divided inside and was overthrown. Many republicans imprisoned or escaped from the country. Franco’s control was a persecution. Franco remained in power until his death in 1975 for 36 years. **
In the movie main character mentions that two bosses in a town is an unexpected thing. So he basically refers to fascism. I liken ‘Baxters’ in the movie to Republicans and ‘Rojos’ to Nationalists. ‘John Baxter’ was a sheriff in the movie as Republicans was in charge at the beginning. Moreover I think ‘Ramon’ could be the Francisco Franco in that story line. ‘Ramon’ is a respected and professional fighter in the movie as Francisco Franco is in the real life. I thought in this way because ‘Rojos’ as Nationalists would like to one and only power in that town and as Nationalists kill or imprisoned Republicans; Rojos kill all Baxters in the movie.
Director deceives and surprises audience throughout the movie. For instance, at the beginning of the movie, when we see Baxters’ men we think that Baxters are bad. We support main character to work for Rojos. However when we see the rest of the story we understand that, actually Baxters are bad, yes, but Rojos are worse. Baxters mostly try to defend themselves because of they are afraid from Rojos. Secondly, till approximately second half of the movie, we expect that main character and Marisol will fall in love to each other. However, then we learn that Marisol is married and the crying boy was her child and she desperately wants to go back her family. In addition, as we talked in the class, there was another trick of the director. When the main character is hidden from Rojos, he works with a gun on a shield. We first thought that he was work to strengthen his throw however at the end of the movie we learn that he was actually testing the new shield which he created. I think this tricky feature of the movie keep the attention of audience.
I am sorry but I cannot tell that the same thing for the music of movie. Music is not only slow down tempo of the movie but also it gives the impression of sluggish to main character. The reason that I felt this way could be also because of character’s slouch of hump. Here you can find the theme song of the movie:
This movie was the second western movie that I watched; contrary to ‘Magnificent Seven’, there are lots of close ups into main character’s face in A fistful of Dollars. We easily catch main character’s feelings because of these close ups. Especially one scene was catchy; at the beginning of the movie, when he first sees Marisol, he smiles because he likes her, and then Marisol close the window with an angry way, his smiling stops.
Despite those close ups I don’t think that the movie gives us emotionality so much, especially when I compare with it Turkish movies. If this movie would a Turkish movie, I think the story would focus more on Marisol’s or community’s suffering; and when main character saves them we could feel actual happiness. As I said I did not watch too much western movie but I think that this could be the style of western movies. I thought like that because in ‘Magnificent Seven’ people also were suffering but again we did not witness their suffering too much (even we witnessed community’s suffering in it more than A fistful of Dollars) when I compare it with Turkish Cinema. However I don’t think that this difference is a problem because I think director would like to focus more on main character, especially rescuer, shrewd and smarty features of him in this movie and he gave his message effectively.
In this review of A Fistful of Dollars, I basically mentioned possible connection between Spanish Civil War and the movie. Also, music, deceiving parts of the story and sensation of the movie were discussed.
Selver Gök (ST)
References
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Fistful_of_Dollars
** http://www.sparknotes.com/history/european/interwaryears/section9.rhtml
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