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Fistful of Dollars (1964)

 



Written by Tim Dirks

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Movie Title/Year and Scene Descriptions
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Fistful of Dollars (1964, It.) (aka Per un Pugno di Dollari)

In Sergio Leone's "spaghetti western" remake of Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo (1961), featuring Clint Eastwood in his first leading role - and the first film in the so-called "Man With No Name" or "Dollars" Trilogy:

  • the central character - a pancho-wearing, cigarillo-smoking 'Man With No Name' (Clint Eastwood) (aka Joe, the Stranger), whose aim was to set two feuding crime gangs, the Rojo and the Baxter clans, against each other
  • upon arrival in town, the Stranger's request to the nearby, elderly local undertaker/coffin-maker Piripero (Joseph Egger): "Get three coffins ready", as he strolled by the storefront on a street in the Mexican border town of San Miguel
  • the Man With No Name's subdued anger over treatment of his mule by a group of four gunslingers, who didn't want him in town, and insulted and reprimanded him: ("Listen, Stranger, didn't you get the idea? We don't like to see bad boys like you in town. Go get your mule. You let him get away from you, ha, ha?"); the stranger replied during a tense-standoff when they refused to apologize, before shooting them down: ("You see, that's what I wanna talk to you about. He's feelin' real bad....My mule. You see, he got all riled up when you went and fired those shots at his feet....You see, I understand you men were just playin' around. But the mule, he just doesn't get it. Of course, if you were to all apologize (they laughed at him) - I don't think it's nice, you laughin'. See, my mule don't like people laughin'. He gets the crazy idea that you're laughin' at him. Now, if you apologize, like I know you're going to, I might convince him that you really didn't mean it")
  • and shortly after seeking deadly revenge in a shoot-out that killed all four men, he told the Sheriff John Baxter (Wolfgang Lukschy): "Well, if you're the Sheriff, you'd better get these four men in the ground"; and then the Man With No Name revised his mordant order to the coffin-maker: "My mistake, four coffins"
  • the final duel against Ramon Rojo (Gian Maria Volontè), when the Man With No Name - who was taunting the gunman to aim for his heart: ("The heart, Ramon. Don't forget the heart. Aim for the heart or you'll never stop me) - then revealed that he was wearing a make-shift bullet-proof metal plate under his poncho, and knowing that Ramon would empty his Winchester rifle of bullets; he then challenged Ramon to a race to see who could load their weapon the fastest: ("When a man with a '45 meets a man with a rifle, you said the man with the pistol's a dead man. Let's see if that's true. Go ahead. Load up and shoot") - and after loading up more quickly, he shot Ramon dead before riding away [Note: a similar "bullet-proof" scene in Back to the Future Part III (1990) paid homage to this final sequence]
Final Shootout Between Ramon Rojo and The Stranger
Revelation of Bullet-Proof Metal Plate Under Poncho
Stare-Off With Ramon Before
He Was Shot Dead

The Man With No Name: "Get Three Coffins Ready"



Shootout After Confrontation With Four Men Over Scaring His Mule

"My Mistake, Four Coffins"

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