Once upon a time, westerns used to be an American filmmaker's playground that in most cases sported a classic theme of good vs evil where the hero was the epitome of goodness while the villain was evil personified. Then in the 1960s entered an Italian filmmaker with his unique vision of the Old Wild West and changed the entire landscape of this genre.

An unofficial remake of Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo, A Fistful of Dollars is the first entry in what became Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy (also known as The Man with No Name Trilogy) and presents Clint Eastwood in his breakthrough role as a mysterious gunslinger who arrives in a troubled town torn by war between two families and schemes his way through both the sides in order to make quick bucks until his luck runs out.

Brilliantly directed by Leone who presents a more realistic look of the Old West that inspired laughter from the critics back then but later found its deserving status nonetheless, the film is expertly written too as it freshly imagines the concept introduced in its source of inspiration and places it in a western background. And Eastwood's show-stealing performance & impressive screen presence birthed on screen one of the most stylish characters ever to grace cinema.

On an overall scale, A Fistful of Dollars is an explosive beginning to what today is rightfully celebrated as one of cinema's most memorable trilogies and greatly benefits from Leone's classic direction, Eastwood's stellar performance, ingenious use of gun violence, inventive camerawork, smart editing, Ennio Morricone's magnificent score and an intense but awesome finale. Highly recommended.