Leone's first spaghetti western founded a legendary sub-genre. Clint Eastwood (who else?) is the super-cool, amoral gunslinger who seeks to profit from the bloody struggle between two frontier families This massively influential film was where Clint Eastwood gave birth to his legendary Man With No Name, a grizzled, sharp-shooting loner who here profits from a small-town feud. He's the sort of guy who'll strike a match on your stubble, save your boy from a burning barn and steal your woman without a glance.
This was the first spaghetti western, shot mainly on location in Spain's dusty landscapes by an international crew and cast. Whereas the traditional western had clear moral boundaries, between the good and the bad, the cowboys and the indians, director Leone chose a more ambiguous world and, in doing so, opened up the frontiers of a new and vibrant genre. Values are blurred, violence is stylised, the story is a steal from Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo and the score comes, of course, from Ennio Morricone.
This was the first spaghetti western, shot mainly on location in Spain's dusty landscapes by an international crew and cast. Whereas the traditional western had clear moral boundaries, between the good and the bad, the cowboys and the indians, director Leone chose a more ambiguous world and, in doing so, opened up the frontiers of a new and vibrant genre. Values are blurred, violence is stylised, the story is a steal from Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo and the score comes, of course, from Ennio Morricone.