A Fistful of Dollars and its impact In this seminal film, Leone used a distinct visual style with large face close ups to tell the story of a hero entering a town that is ruled by two outlaw gangs, and ordinary social relations are nonexistent. The hero betrays and plays the gangs against each other to make money. He uses his cunning and exceptional weapons skill to assist a family threatened by both gangs. His treachery is exposed, and he is severely beaten, but in the end, he defeats the remaining gang. The interactions in this story range between cunning and irony (the tricks, deceits, unexpected actions and sarcasm of the hero), and pathos (terror and brutality against defenseless people and against the hero after his doublecross has been revealed). Ennio Morricone's innovative score expresses a similar duality between quirky and unusual sounds and instruments, and sacral dramatizing for the big confrontation scenes. Another important novelty was Clint Eastwood's performance as the man with no name—an unshaven, sarcastic, insolent Western antihero with personal goals in mind, and with distinct visuals to boot—the squint, the cigarillo, the poncho, etc.Frayling (2000), pp. 118–65.
A Fistful of Dollars and its impact In this seminal film Leone used a distinct visual style with large face close ups to tell the story of a hero entering a town that is ruled by two outlaw gangs and ordinary social relations are nonexistent The hero betrays and plays the gangs against each other to make money He uses his cunning and exceptional weapons skill to assist a family threatened by both gangs His treachery is exposed and he is severely beaten but in the end he defeats the remaining gang The interactions in this story range between cunning and irony (the tricks deceits unexpected actions and sarcasm of the hero) and pathos (terror and brutality against defenseless people and against the hero after his doublecross has been revealed) Ennio Morricone's innovative score expresses a similar duality between quirky and unusual sounds and instruments and sacral dramatizing for the big confrontation scenes Another important novelty was Clint Eastwood's performance as the man with no name—an unshaven sarcastic insolent Western antihero with personal goals in mind and with distinct visuals to boot—the squint the cigarillo the poncho etcFrayling (2000) pp 118–65