Per un pugno di dollari (A Fistful of Dollars) is a 1964 film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood. Released in the United States in 1966, it initiated the popularity of the Spaghetti western film genre. It was followed by For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, also starring Clint Eastwood.

The plot of the film involves Eastwood as a gunman (now known universally as "The Man with No Name" despite being addressed as "Joe" in the film) who arrives in a small town on the frontier and plays the town's two rival factions off against each other in order to make money off both sides and save a family caught in the crossfire.

The story very closely tracks that of the Akira Kurosawa film Yojimbo—Kurosawa successfully sued the production for breach of copyright.

Stephen King has credited the trilogy with inspiring the atmosphere of his novel The Gunslinger.

Quentin Tarantino holds this as the greatest film of all time, and claims it as one of his biggest inspirations in the world of motion picture.

External links

• Quotes from "A Fistful of Dollars" at Wikiquote