DVD Review: A Fistful of Dollars Special Edition

There is nothing that I can say here to match the words of Sir Christopher Frayling, who features prominently on these discs of this Leone classic. Frayling (author of Sergio Leone: Something To Do With Death & Once Upon a Time in Italy and Spaghetti Westerns) has always been entertaining and educating with his never-ending knowledge on this, one of his favourite subjects and his favourite director.

Before we are introduced to any of the characters, we get a bombardment of an opening. Red and black images in rotoscope showing some of the violence to come in what seems to be a homage to the no-nonsense of Connery’s Bond opening credits. This had never happened for this type of movie before. We have a pop culture take-on and Italy doing what it has done best, to capitalise on what was popular everywhere else. This take-on of James Bond meets ‘The Magnificent Seven’ was Leone’s answer after watching Kurosawa’s 'Yojimbo' (years later, this would serve as the basis of 'Last Man Standing' with Bruce Willis and Christopher Walken). Leone updated this samurai classic to the West of the 1870’s, also borrowing from sections of popular crime author Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest. Filmed quickly and cheaply in Spain, this changed the shape of not only the western but also pop culture and cinema to come. Kurosawa's film company sued them and won, postponing the movies initial release and recieving 15% of the movies take in the box-office receipts.

Clint Eastwood plays the iconic character, the man with no name, with poncho, stubble, and cheroot, who rides into a small Mexican town. The first thing he sees is a small boy being beaten by a large bandit but he just looks on. This again spelled a difference to the Roy Rogers, Gary Cooper and John Wayne westerns that had been shown previously. How could a hero just watch and not act against something like this ? We are in new territory indeed, or rather we were. I was one of the generations that grew up with what is now known as the 'Spaghetti Westerns' but at the time this shift in cinema must have been gob smacking.

the Rawhide days

The international cast (including Gian Maria Volonte, Mario Brega and Josef Egger who would all return to play different characters in 'For a Few Dollars More') was a deliberate decision to make sure that this movie would have appeal throughout its financier’s countries. Eastwood was a brave choice and not Leone’s first, but Henry Fonda, James Coburn and Charles Bronson were far too expensive for this low budget quickie. Eastwood was also the main reason for the character to work so well, fighting to reduce the number his own lines and bringing his own wardrobe from his 'Rawhide' days. The first shoot out, due to a lack of an apology to Eastwood’s mule, has all the hallmarks of what was later to come out of Leone’s cannon. Long closeups on interesting faces, Ennio Morricone’s score building to a frenzy, quick flashes of the spectating crowd and then five shots later - four bodies are lying dead on the dusty street. Eastwood’s character is not a hero in the general sense of the word. There are two gangs in town with him in the middle, and there is money to be made. He hatches a plan to play off one against the other with the intent of picking up the spoils for himself after the inevitable bloody outcome. This sets the scene of plot against plot and some army gold with Leone using every inch of his camera.

Sir Christopher Frayling

In April 2004, the guys at MGM pulled out all the stops with the re-issue of Leone's 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly' and they have done so here again. On disc 1, the cleaned-up and never sounding better print (sound options in both 5.1 and DTS, replacing the previously available mono only), including an encyclopaedic commentary by Sir Christopher Frayling which is a marvel and worthy of the price alone. Disc 2 is split into 4 sections; the first is the most lengthy and includes both documentaries and interviews. The first here is ‘A New Kind of Hero’, has Sir Christopher again, this documentary covers much the same ground as his audio commentary on disc 1 and for those not willing to do the commentary this is a marvellous and entertaining 22 minutes.

Leone & Eastwood

Next on the list is ‘A Few Weeks in Spain’, shot in 2003, interviewing Eastwood about his past collaboration with Leone and this movie in particular. Eastwood lovingly talks about the time that made his career. Giving anecdotes on providing his own costume to Leone stealing a tree from a neighbourghing yard to enhance the look of a shot. This is a short and sweet 8 minutes worth and leaves you wishing for more. ‘Tre Voci’ is again a loving tribute to the master Leone, with three of his friends, Alberto Grimaldi (producer to Leone, Scorsese and Fellini amongst others), Sergio Donati (writer of many of Leone's westerns) and Mickey Knox (dubbing director of Leone's westerns and actor)speaking candidly about their dear departed friend and their times together.

'Restoration Italian Style’ is a short tech feature on the restoration of Leone’s westerns released through MGM, with nods to this release and the previously mentioned 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly' as well as the 2 other releases that will accompany this one to the DVD shelves; 'For A Few Dollars More' and 'A Fistful of Dynamite (Duck You Sucker)' (for additional info on these please check out our database and their individual reviews). ‘Location Comparisons, Almeria, Spain 1964 – 2004’ is also a nice little touch, showing clips from the movie and still shot comparisons of today. Now to the second section; 'Original Promotional Material' which includes a grainy theatrical trailer, an even dirtier double bill trailer (giving away the surprise at the end too) and 10 crackly radio spots, mostly using the man-with-no-name tag (this was developed for the PR for US audiences as he is referred to as Joe within the movie and is scripted as such). Now to ‘The Television Cut’, this little extra is worthy of extras stars all on its own. Something that was deemed incredibly rare has been dug up and is now here for all to share. When the movie was about to premiere on TV back in 1977, there was a moral problem with it. Not ‘Ready For Primetime’ explains what the fuss was about and how director Monte Hellman (Two-Lane Blacktop) was asked to create a prologue to the movie, which was thought lost and has not been seen by many since its first and only outing. The captions tell us that Clint blasts away a dozen men, the villains massacre dozens more, and none of the violence is given any moral justification and lastly that the cynical hero rides off a rich man unpunished for his crimes… this was just too much for TV to handle and a ‘reason’ had to be created. ‘The Network Prologue’ - due to Howard Fridkin, a Leone fan and collector, this was sitting on a Betamax tape for years and is played here in all its weird glory. Harry Dean Stanton gives a Clint stand-in (we never see his face but it is clearly not him, he now has a huge poncho and an even bigger 45), the option of serving out his prison time or go to a town run by two gangs of thugs and clean it up for a pardon. This is too close to John Carpenter’s ‘Escape From New York’ to be just a coincidence. This is strange stuff indeed.

Lastly we have ‘Collector’s Gallery’ with loads of black and white stills from the movie. This is a faultless release from MGM and we should all dust down our ponchos, get out the 6 shooters, crank up the volume and escape for an afternoon with this release. Available from Amazon.UK and is intended as part of a boxed set later in the year, as of yet no US release has been announced. For more information on this please check our database.