This is a review of the film A Fistful of Dollars. Perhaps review isn't the right word. Annotation is more accurate, since much of this blog post addresses certain specific parts of the movie and not just my reaction to the overall viewing experience. Anyway, pop in the DVD if you have it and follow along. If not, I hope you enjoy my commentary anyway.
My first impression is that Cowboy Bebop (a great show) took this opening style. This looks like it was created using stop-and-go animation the medium being red cardboard cutouts on a solid black background. This is a pretty impressive piece of artwork in and of itself. I love the beginning of this film. The first shot is of the dusty Utah soil which pans up to the feet of a mule and eventually to the tall slim, rider*.
The tightness of the next few shots between the unknown man and the man harassing the boy provoke a feeling of confrontation, but none ensues. This scene (which has long stretches of silence) transitions with the solitary ringing of a church bell while the shot cuts to a hangman's noose. This intro sets the mood of fear that pervades the town.
The dialogue written for the man with no name is very reminiscent in form and style to the eastern mode of speech. This is short in delivery and high in content**. To the westerner, especially when spoken in English, I believe this often seems terse and insincere (meaning that it is thought to be 'put on' or faked). However, it is simply an imitation of the original language used. If you listen to the speed and tone of the innkeeper, you will notice quicker delivery and longer phrases. This is much like the Western form of speech in that it tends to reiterate the same ideas or provide more detail to them***.
It is cool how the shots in this film use depth to set the focus. Things in the foreground draw the eye, and things in the background are consumed in peripheral. This generates a pleasing delivery which naturally generates a setting for the dialogue and is a key piece of the storytelling device for this plot.
As far as the story goes, you immediately get a sense of who the main antagonist is and what he is capable of. Much like the genre of eastern film of which this is a remake, the hero possesses almost a supernatural air. He is of course a man in the purest sense; however, his skills and understanding of the world around him elevate him above others. The villain is his only rival with regard to his physical skills, and he is, perhaps, even better. The audience eventually sees the difference between them with regard to the latter of the traits of the hero. While the villain understands the world, his view of it is warped, which allows the hero to triumph over him in the end.
When the innkeeper points out the soldiers riding past the town 'to the frontier', it illustrates that this is but a smaller part of the world around them, and that the problems of the town are overlooked in favor of more relevant concerns. That is until the main antagonist is shown slaughtering those soldiers for his own gain. After this the man with no name gets a first glimpse of the ability of the villain: a shot of 50 yards to kill a man fleeing on a horse.
This is the first exposition of Ramon's prodigious, almost supernatural skill. Ramon knows how good he is. He is also an accurate judge of the skill of others, which is why he remarks to his brother after the stranger exits of his skill with the pistol in killing the four members of the other family (an event which he did not witness). He also addresses in brief the danger of the man's intelligence to the family. This he quickly dismisses, because he does not believe his own skill can be conquered by wit.
The innkeeper is distressed that the man placed the bodies on the grave of 'the only man who ever died of pneumonia in this town'. He is superstitious in the way that many people are. They implicitly acknowledge that some spiritual world exists; however, they do not reflect this in their dealings with all people, and it is only certain events or places or people that cause them to show such a belief.
I love the dialogue parts for Eastwood. He should have been an eastern actor. The content and delivery are perfect for this role (as noted before, concise but full of meaning.) His skill with the pistol is furthered in the audiences mind when he is able to keep his face hidden from the Rojo family's guard while cutting the two cords holding the sign above him. This is 'almost' unbelievable, but it might still be possible for the best gunmen in the world.
In modern film making, the fight scene that follows would be done solely with consistent, graphic action, but here, Leone intersperses shots of the man with no name, which progresses his story. This lets the audience know that the two things are occurring at the same time. It is things like this that allow really interesting and rich dialogue. Otherwise, another character or a narrator would need to inform the audience, or the director would have to risk continuing with a confused crowd.
The guy threatening to kill the man who was 'warned to get out of town' is stopped by the innkeeper. The man turns to deal with the him until the stranger stands straight from the position of leaning against the wall. This shows the man and the audience that the stranger is on his side. The man backs down, which shows that he has heard the story of the stranger's skill in gunning down the four Baxters or that he too senses the aura of superiority surrounding the stranger.
The scene where the stranger saves the captured mother is my favorite in the film. Up to this point, he has been cautious in dealing with the men in the town. In a bold move, he busts in on the drunk guards and shoots them all before they stand up. He knows the shots will be heard and quickly arranges a scene that suggests there was an fight amongst the men and prepares to burn the place down. All this is done before he looks for the lady, because she might slow him down. As he is cutting down the cane shoots from the ceiling, one of the guards stirs toward his gun. The audience is led to believe that the stranger does not notice him amidst the noise of breaking pottery, but at the last second, the mother screams and the stranger turns. One might expect him to be surprised, but through constant internal calm or a heightened sense of his environment the stranger's face is stoic. He aims and dispatches the man for good with a thrown machete. This is visual storytelling at its finest****.
The stranger presents maybe the only piece of his background in the following scene. As he rushes the woman and her family out of town, she asks him why he is doing this, to which he replies, "I knew someone like you once, and there was no one there to help." This is an unexpected piece of humanity revealed in a man that seems (to the unobservant) one that is focused solely on monetary gain.
The stranger is then seemingly bested by the villain for the first time. He takes a tremendous beating from the members of the villain's family, but he shows a resilience not to be expected from an ordinary man. He has the wherewithal to pretend to be knocked out afterwards, so that they would leave him. Before the men come back, he kills them with a trap. This is very much a superhuman feat, and one which allows him to escape at the same time. The audience is left to wonder if this was again part of the stranger's plan. Two scenes later, we see that it wasn't, somewhat comically with the undertaker*****. The stranger just used the situation to his advantage in spite of being found out.
This provokes an attack by Ramon on the innkeeper and the slaughter of the rival family. From the reaction of the stranger watching from the casket, it is clear that he did not intend for this type of bloodshed, whatever his ultimate end. This is the beginning of the climax of the film, the motivation of the protagonist into decisive action against the villain. I think back to the scene when the stranger bids farewell to the mother earlier in the night. The audience is shown that perhaps the stranger has more humanity than is immediately noticeable.
I like how the stranger practices shooting during his recovery. He always shoots at the same piece of sheet steel from an old mining operation. One thing that will be relevant later is that the target is bulletproof. The audience doesn't know that this is important, but the payoff to the setup is not long in appearing.
When Ramon is torturing the innkeeper, the rest of the family thinks they have driven 'the Americano' out of town, but he knows better. He was trying to provoke him to action the whole time when he involved his proprietor friend.
Now comes my favorite sequence of shots in the movie. The obvious one is that of the stranger emerging from the dust and smoke of the dynamite explosion. The next shows him walking in the clear up to a camera that is placed on the ground until all that is visible are his boots. It then cuts to a shot of the same nature except that it is in reverse and focuses on Ramon and the Rojos. Beginning with a shot of Ramon's boots, they all walk from near the camera away until they are fully in the shot. That's a great piece of film making there.
Up to this point, Ramon has shown no signs of superstition, and relies completely on his own view of the world. He shoots the stranger, and the stranger falls. Ramon thinks he has killed him, until the stranger slowly rises. He fires again, and the same thing happens. As the stranger begins to repeat his motto of aiming for the heart, you can see the fear start in Ramon's eyes. This is something which he hasn't encountered and which he has no response for except to keep firing. Ramon has always been able to solve problems with skill and ruthlessness. Now, he tries in vain to do the same thing.
Ramon empties the rifle, then realizes his folly. The stranger kills all the men behind him and conspicuously leaves him alive (though not without shooting the gun from his hand.) The stranger does this to give him one last chance to prove his skill. Deep down, Ramon knows he is beat, but is not until the stranger loads and levels his pistol first that you see him finally realize it fully. He says nothing, but again the film making takes over here. A close shot of his eyes tells the tale. Then they cut to a shot of the eyes of the stranger. He is become the hand of vengeance. Bam! He fires and the redemption of the town is complete (not without the innkeeper getting his piece in!)
So, everyone makes out in the end. The innkeeper and the town have peace, the undertaker has business, and the stranger...he has redemption from whatever regret he had gnawing at him from the past (the one he expressed to the mother). Finally, the credits roll with no further explanation, just as the film began.
This is a great film to be sure. It set the stage for an entire generation of creative people, who used the techniques to tell very specific stories. The audience almost forgets that they know next to nothing about the stranger by the end of the movie, because they have populated his character with themselves, their own thoughts and emotions and morality. No motives are given, and none are needed to fulfill the plot. The lead character in these types of stories needs little background, and in fact, the plot's success often hinges on the ability of the film maker to navigate him through in a neutral manner until the end. The first installment in the Man with No Name trilogy definitely does this to perfection, which is why it remains one of the most revered films in many creative circles.
* The widescreen film format is more natural for the human visual palate to intake. We focus on the things in the center of our vision and roughly inspect the peripheral, and we hardly ever focus at the sky or the ground.
** The only two characters that ever speak in the concise, almost poetic form are the stranger and Ramon. This is an underlying method of distinguishing between those 'higher' men from the 'lesser' men to the audience.
*** The purpose of language is to convey ideas quickly and easily between people. There is a difference in strategy between languages at accomplishing this purpose. English has fewer words that are used, but its composition focuses on the variety of combinations of words to provide a more detailed picture of a person, place, thing or idea. Oriental language opts for many more words which, while requiring more memorization, can provide a more concise but no less detailed picture of the same thing.
**** The mother looks at the Eastwood and shows amazement at the throw. Eastwood doesn't reply except with a raised eyebrow and a semi-comic look. This is very reminiscent of Spike Spiegel at several points in Cowboy Bebop.
***** Notice that the undertaker shows no superstitious fear to the stranger in the casket, though he implies that others might.
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