A Fistful of Dollars (1964)

IMDb plot summary: A wandering gunfighter plays two rival families against each other in a town torn apart by greed, pride, and revenge.
Directed by Sergio Leone. Starring Clint Eastwood, Marianne Koch, Gian Maria Volontè, and Wolfgang Lukschy.

This was the second critically-acclaimed movie this week that I had high hopes for based on other movies I'd seen and enjoyed from the director... only to be seriously let down. Oddly, A Fistful of Dollars feels significantly longer than The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, despite being about half its length and actually a pretty short film. But while TGTB&TU had some great character development and interactions to pull me into the story, this one is all surface. None of the characters are interesting to watch and it all seems so run-of-the-mill -- though maybe none of these characters or scenarios were tropes just yet. Comparing it to not only TGTB&TU but also to this film's source material Yojimbo, and it's clear that this movie just doesn't have the personal element that helps it hold up to those two. I had trouble even staying awake through this film's short run.

1 star.

How it entered my Flickchart:
A Fistful of Dollars < The Fortune Cookie
A Fistful of Dollars < Chinatown
A Fistful of Dollars > The Long Goodbye
A Fistful of Dollars < Road to Morocco
A Fistful of Dollars < Roberta
A Fistful of Dollars < The Chocolate War
A Fistful of Dollars < Easter Parade
A Fistful of Dollars > Aquamarine
A Fistful of Dollars > Out of the Past
A Fistful of Dollars < Men of Honor
A Fistful of Dollars > Dragon Lee vs. Five Brothers
Final spot: #2083 out of 2398.