Fistful of Dollars

Just watched a classic Clint Eastwood western in Fistful of Dollars. The "Spaghetti Western" trilogy outlier without Lee Van Cleef. Eastwood is a drifter who finds himself a real tough town with two families habitually at war. Eastwood kicks things off by asking the bartender which family is stronger, than killing four members of the other gang in classic fashion. He looks at a guy making caskets, calmly says "get three caskets ready", or something to that effect, then goes and picks himself a fight. He goes over to the cowboys, tries to make them apologize for spooking his "goat", when they refuse, he promptly shoots them all, making four dead bodies. He calmly apologizes/exclaims to the casket-maker, "Sorry, I meant four", and goes about his merry way. Eastwood eventually pits both gangs against each other and makes a huge mess of everything in spectacular fashion. I was a big fan, though I didn't really devote my full attention to it sadly. Eastwood is the quintessential western actor. He's tougher than 1-grit sandpaper and has a voice that could make a drill Sargent cry. Needless to say I'm a biased fan, but Eastwood fucking rocks.

Bottom Line: 7.3 out of 10. You're going to get your bad acting and bad sound, but the flaws are overcome by a really good story, and strong performances from Eastwood and Gian Maria Volonté, who also was the bad guy in For a Few Dollars More. Highly recommend seeing this, but NOT before seeing The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, and then follow it with For a Few Dollars More. Complete the Man With No Name trilogy and enjoy yourself.

Sidenote: I sincerely hope you view Christmas as a chance to spend time with people you love and celebrate that love.