Per Un Pugno Di Dollari: A Fistful Of Dollars

In the late 1960’s a new subgenre was born: “European Western”, most well known as “Spaghetti Western”. Per un Pugno di Dollari (A Fistful of Dollars) is a movie that represents this genre. It was made in 1964 by Sergio Leone, starring Clint Eastwood, and with a musical score composed by Ennio Morricone. This film set the pace and tone of the genre, so despite personal taste, this movie can be called revolutionary and influential. Key factors for such achievement are detailed next: the direction of photography, the editing, the neorealist influence, the film score, and advantage of the international financed production.

Leone the cinematographer of A Fistful of Dollars is one of the most influential Italian directors worldwide. His contribution to the creation of the sub-genre Spaghetti Western places him as the father of it, shaping its style with this movie. As Grant indicates “If we talk about the strictly Italian interpretation of the western subject, then Leone sets the point of origin.”(50) Story wise, this film is not original, in fact the plot was admittedly borrowed from Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo (1961). It features a lonely fortune-hunter who plays two rival families against each

There is a great scene that exemplifies such improvements. Towards the end of the movie in the last fight, Leone stations the camera at the same level than the protagonist's hip, using a point of view behind of the gun, so the audience sees him shooting a man at the same time they see the man going down. This was a particular angle for an action scene. During that period in cinema, other western directors would have instead two separate shots, one of the protagonist shooting and a one of the man being shot. Leone’s camera movements are always exquisitely planned and choreographed, and he is known for being “perfectionist” (Klein