A Fistful of Dollars

Sorry Jim, but this did nothing for me. Plot? Character? Motivation? Sorry, not in this film. Seriously, there were plot-holes I could drive a truck through & it wasn't nearly pretty enough to forgive all the weaknesses. 2/5

ADDED: Okay, to break this down a little more. I wanted to know something about The Stranger. I found out next to nothing. I wanted to understand the two sides of the battle. I found out next to nothing. I wanted to know what drove the characters. Naw, not that either. REALLY thin on the motivation front, which for me is always important in a film, and that was my biggest disappointment. The logic flaws really killed me. How did The Stranger know the shortcut back from The Small House when the Rohos didn't? If your enemy family was THAT easy to kill off, why hadn't they done it already, especially since not a one of the Rohos had any sort of conscience? If shooting a guy in the heart seven times isn't killing him - AND he's taunting you about it - why not try the head? I mean come on! And I'm sorry, I really did try, but the bad over-dubbing really got to me, as did Eastwood's acting. I've never been a fan of Clint's acting and I'm still not. I can't really explain it but he just rubs me the wrong way. This, sadly, was no exception.

Was it pretty? Sure. But I've seen so many better shot movies that it simply doesn't make up for everything I found lacking. Hell, I saw at least two films in the last two weeks that were shot FAR better than this was. I'm hoping that I'll have a better reaction to the next in the series but honestly I'm not holding my breath.

Oh, and Jim, for the record, I was right about the visual similarities to Herzog - they definitely shared a vision. Leone loved his deserts and Herzog adored his water. But, for my money, this was on par with Herzog's weaker works and Eastwood was never and will never be a Kinski. I'd put this up against Herzog's "Cobra Verde", which is IMO the weakest of his Kinski collaborations. Both Herzog and Kinski were well off their game and it showed, so while it was beautiful it suffered from the same logic and character flaws this film did. So, in your opinion, if this is Leone's "Cobra Verde", what's his "Fitzcarraldo"? Where does Leone shine the most and have his best collaborative work? That I'll be curious to see.

A Fistful of Dollars on Netflix