The Man With No Name (Clint Eastwood) arrives in a small border town in the southern USA with no agenda, and finds two warring families who wrestle for control over the townspeople. Seeing an opportunity to rake it in, the Man seeks to manipulate the two groups against one another for greater gain, but finds his conscience along the way.
Eastwood's Stunning Debut
Clint Eastwood's first starring role came here, but watching his performance, it really doesn't seem possible. Eastwood inhabits the character of the Man With No Name with intensity and an air of mystery, only hinting at his past and keeping his dialogue down to a minimum, enfusing his performance with strength with only his expressions. His performance alone is worth watching, if only to see how he went on to become such a famous actor and director from this auspicious start.
The Rojos brothers, one of the two groups of antagonists, are led by Ramon (Gian Maria Volonte), a ruthless and intelligent man who makes sure to aim for his opponent's heart. This is the most interesting supporting performance; Ramon is a perfect foil for Eastwood's sharp-shooting American, and Volonte does well even through the pitiful dubbing to present a character who exudes menace and could seemingly do whatever he wants to do to whoever he wants to do it.
Plot and Setting Married Perfectly; Dialogue Suffers
The story, told in both novel and Japanese film before this, is strong, and Sergio Leone skilfully directs the twists and turns. Leone said his influence for these films was John Ford, and in fitting the story to the screen, he emulates his famous predecessor. The manipulation and scheming of the protagonist merges so well with the music and visuals that it sometimes appears that composer and director were working adjacently to fit everything together. This is a fantastic effort for a first big international film, and the beginning of a stretch of hits that cemented him as one of the all-time directing greats.
The dialogue soundtrack is where Dollars slightly fails; the dubbing of the majority of the cast (with the exception of Eastwood) is downright awful. Leone was someone who praised visual over aural, and as a consequence the dubbing is laughably bad, with most of the European actors' performances suffering as a result. Thankfully the dialogue itself is good enough to push through this, but it is hard at first to not get distracted by this.!
Morricone's Majestic Score Merges With Fabulous Visuals
The music, by Ennio Morricone, is fantastic, and his work on The Good, The Bad and The Ugly all too often overshadows his creativity in the other two films. Morricione produces here his first landmark score of a lifetime, and in the whistles, calls and guitars, transports the viewer to the Old West. Dollars is filmed on location and on a set that looks like it had been transported wholesale through time, such is the detail. It truly engages the viewer in the narrative when Eastwood rides up and down steep hills in pursuit of a roving party on horseback, because it's clear that nothing has been faked.
Subverting the Western genre by marrying it with samurai narrative, Leone created a hybrid genre that became known as the Spaghetti Western after Dollars. The Italian managed to change the execution of the Western movie genre forever, starting in fantastic fashion here.
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