Dollars Trilogy
Dollars Trilogy (Italian: Trilogia del dollaro), also known as the Man with No Name Trilogy or the Blood Money Trilogy, is an Italian film series consisting of three Spaghetti Western films directed by Sergio Leone. The films are titled A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). Their English versions were distributed by United Artists, while the Italian ones were distributed by Unidis and PEA.
Dollars Trilogy | |
---|---|
Blu-ray box set cover | |
Directed by | Sergio Leone |
Produced by |
|
Starring |
|
Music by | Ennio Morricone |
Cinematography |
|
Edited by |
|
Production company | Constantin Film Jolly Film (1) Ocean Films (1) Produzioni Europee Associati (PEA) (2–3) Arturo González Producciones Cinematográficas (2–3) United Artists (3) |
Distributed by | Unidis (Italy, 1) PEA (Italy, 2–3) United Artists (US & UK, original) Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (current) |
Release date | 1: October 16, 1964 2: November 18, 1965 3: December 23, 1966 |
Running time | 409 minutes (1–3) |
Country | Italy West Germany Spain United States (3) |
Language | English Italian |
Budget | Total (3 films): $2,000,000–$2,025,000 |
Box office | Total (3 films): $54.6 million (US gross) 40.7 million admissions (Italy) |
The series has become known for establishing the Spaghetti Western genre, and inspiring the creation of many more Spaghetti Western films. The three films are consistently listed among the best rated Western films in history.[1]
Although not Leone's intention, the three films came to be considered a trilogy following the exploits of the same so-called "Man with No Name" (portrayed by Clint Eastwood, wearing the same clothes and acting with the same mannerisms). The "Man with No Name" concept was invented by the American distributor United Artists, looking for a strong angle to sell the films as a trilogy. Eastwood's character does indeed have a name (albeit a nickname) and a different one in each film: "Joe", "Manco" and "Blondie", respectively.
Development
A Fistful of Dollars is an unofficial remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1961 film Yojimbo starring Toshiro Mifune, which resulted in a successful lawsuit by Toho.[2][3]
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is considered a prequel,[4] since it depicts Eastwood's character gradually acquiring the clothing he wears throughout the first two films and because it takes place during the American Civil War (1861–1865), whereas the other two films feature comparatively more modern firearms and other props. For example, Lee Van Cleef's character in For a Few Dollars More appears to be a Confederate veteran who has come down in the world, and a graveyard scene in A Fistful of Dollars features a gravestone dated 1873.
Cast
The only actors to appear in all three films besides Eastwood are Mario Brega, Aldo Sambrell, Benito Stefanelli and Lorenzo Robledo. Four other actors each appear twice in the trilogy, playing different characters: Lee Van Cleef, Gian Maria Volonté, Luigi Pistilli, and Joseph Egger.
"I think [the Leone films] changed the style, the approach to Westerns [in Hollywood]. ... They made the violence and the shooting aspect a little more larger than life, and they had great music and new types of scores. ... They were stories that hadn't been used in other Westerns. They just had a look and a style that was a little different at the time: I don't think any of them was a classic story—like [John Wayne's 1956] The Searchers or something like that—they were more fragmented, episodic, following the central character through various little episodes."
Music
Composer Ennio Morricone provided original music score for all three films, although in A Fistful of Dollars he was credited as "Dan Savio."[6][7]
Principal cast
Actor | Films | ||
---|---|---|---|
A Fistful of Dollars (1964) |
For a Few Dollars More (1965) |
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) | |
Clint Eastwood | Joe | Manco ("Il Monco") |
Blondie ("Il Biondo") |
Mario Brega | Chico | Niño | Corporal Wallace |
Aldo Sambrell | Manolo | Cuchillo | Angel Eyes Gang Member |
Benito Stefanelli | Rubio | Hughie (a.k.a. "Luke") | |
Lorenzo Robledo | Baxter's member | Tomaso | Clem |
Joseph Egger | Piripero[8] | Old Prophet[9] ("Vecchio Profeta") |
|
Gian Maria Volonté | Ramón Rojo[10] | El Indio[11] | |
Marianne Koch | Marisol[12] | ||
Lee Van Cleef | Colonel Douglas Mortimer | Angel Eyes ("Sentenza") | |
Luigi Pistilli | Groggy | Father Pablo Ramirez | |
Román Ariznavarreta | Half-Shaved Bounty Hunter[13] | Bounty Hunter[14] | |
Antoñito Ruiz | Fernando[15] | Stevens' Youngest son[14] | |
José Terrón | Guy Calloway[16] | Thomas 'Shorty' Larson[17] | |
Eli Wallach | Tuco Ramirez[18] |
Crew
Role | Film | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
A Fistful of Dollars (1964) |
For a Few Dollars More (1965) |
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) | ||
Director | Sergio Leone | |||
Producer | Arrigo Colombo Giorgio Papi |
Alberto Grimaldi | ||
Writer | Screenplay | Sergio Leone Víctor Andrés Catena Jaime Comas Gil Fernando Di Leo Duccio Tessari Tonino Valerii |
Sergio Leone Luciano Vincenzoni Sergio Donati |
Sergio Leone Luciano Vincenzoni Age & Scarpelli Sergio Donati[19] |
Story | Akira Kurosawa Ryūzō Kikushima (Yojimbo) |
Sergio Leone Fulvio Morsella Enzo Dell'Aquila Fernando Di Leo[20] |
Sergio Leone Luciano Vincenzoni | |
English Dialogue | Mark Lowell Clint Eastwood |
Luciano Vincenzoni | Mickey Knox | |
Music | Composer | Ennio Morricone | ||
Director | Ennio Morricone | Bruno Nicolai | ||
Cinematographer | Massimo Dallamano | Tonino Delli Colli | ||
Editor | Roberto Cinquini | Eugenio Alabiso Giorgio Serrallonga |
Eugenio Alabiso Nino Baragli | |
Set and costume designer | Carlo Simi |
Reception
Critical reception
Film | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic |
---|---|---|
A Fistful of Dollars | 98% (8.18/10 average rating) (50 reviews)[21] | 65 (7 reviews)[22] |
For a Few Dollars More | 91% (7.81/10 average rating) (34 reviews)[23] | 74 (8 reviews)[24] |
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly | 97% (8.78/10 average rating) (71 reviews)[25] | 90 (7 reviews)[26] |
Box office performance
Film | Italian release date | US release date | Italian admissions[27] | US gross | Budget |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
A Fistful of Dollars | September 12, 1964 | January 18, 1967 | 14,797,275 | $14.5 million[28] | $200,000-$225,000[29] |
For a Few Dollars More | December 18, 1965 | May 10, 1967 | 14,543,161 | $15 million[30] | $600,000[31] |
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly | December 23, 1966[32][33] | December 29, 1967 | 11,364,221 | $25.1 million[34] | $1.2 million[35] |
Totals | 40,704,657 | $54,600,000 | $2,000,000–$2,025,000 |
Accolades
Film | Award | Category | Recipients | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
A Fistful of Dollars | Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists[36] | Best Score | Ennio Morricone | Won |
Best Supporting Actor | Gian Maria Volonté | Nominated | ||
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly | Laurel Awards[37] | Action Performance | Clint Eastwood | Runner-Up |
Grammy Awards[38] | 2009 Grammy Hall of Fame Award | Ennio Morricone | Won |
Home media
The 1999 DVD, plus the 2010 and 2014 Blu-ray box set releases by MGM (distributed by Fox, a home video division of Disney/Buena Vista), make specific reference to the set of films as "The Man With No Name Trilogy."[39][40]
References
- "Top 100 Western Movies". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
- Gelten, Simon. "FISTFUL - The Whole Story, part 2". The Spaghetti Western Database. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
- Alfreds, David (24 April 2009). "Cinema this week: The greatest director of all time". When Falls the Coliseum. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
- Anderson, Cal. "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly". Clint Eastwood.Net. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
- Eliot (2009), p.114-115
- "Man With No Name Movies - Fun Facts, Questions, Answers, Information". FunTrivia. 7 January 2014. Archived from the original on 20 November 2014. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
- Anderson, Cal. "A Fistful of Dollars (1964)". Clint Eastwood.Net. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
- Frayling, Christopher (27 January 2008). Spaghetti Westerns: Cowboys and Europeans from Karl May to Sergio Leone. I.B.Tauris. p. 258. ISBN 9781845112073.
- Maltin, Leonard (4 September 2012). Leonard Maltin's 2013 Movie Guide: The Modern Era. Penguin. p. 870. ISBN 9781101604632.
- Cerquiglini, Emanuele (12 July 2019). Un Gelato Per Henry. Litres. p. 15. ISBN 9785041721862.
- Cooke, Mervyn; Ford, Fiona (8 December 2016). The Cambridge Companion to Film Music. Cambridge University Press. p. 274. ISBN 9781107094512.
- Bradshaw, Peter (13 April 2018). "A Fistful of Dollars review – punk-rock western as fabulous as ever". The Guardian. Guardian News & Media Limited. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
- Hughes, Howard (31 March 2006). Once Upon A Time in the Italian West: The Filmgoers' Guide to Spaghetti Westerns. I.B.Tauris. p. 74. ISBN 9780857730459.
- Neibaur, James L. (12 March 2015). The Clint Eastwood Westerns. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 31. ISBN 9781442245044.
- Núñez Marqués, Anselmo (2006). Western a la europea--: un plato que se sirve frío. Entrelineas Editores. p. 277. ISBN 9788498024326.
- Hughes, Howard (30 July 2009). Aim for the Heart: The Films of Clint Eastwood. I.B.Tauris. p. 279. ISBN 9780857730473.
- Leinberger, Charles (2004). Ennio Morricone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: A Film Score Guide. Scarecrow Press. p. 80. ISBN 9780810851320.
- Rajgopal, K.S. (20 January 2017). "'When you have to shoot, shoot'". The Hindu. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
- Sir Christopher Frayling, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly audio commentary (Blu-ray version). Retrieved on 3 August 2015.
- Cox, Alex (2009). 10,000 Ways to Die: A Director's Take on the Spaghetti Western. Oldcastle Books. ISBN 978-1842433041.
- "A Fistful of Dollars (1964)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
- "A Fistful of Dollars (1964)". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
- "For a Few Dollars More (1965)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
- "For a Few Dollars More (1965)". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
- "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
- "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
- "La classifica dei film più visti di sempre al cinema in Italia". movieplayer.it. 25 January 2016. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
- "A Fistful of Dollars (1967)". Box Office Mojo. Amazon. Retrieved 8 January 2014.
- Sources that refer to the budget of A Fistful of Dollars include:
- "Per un pugno di dollari - Box Office Data, DVD Sales, Movie News, Cast Information". The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved 8 January 2014.
- "Sergio Leone Factoids". Fistful of Leone. Retrieved 8 January 2014.
- Hicks, Christopher (25 January 1990). "EASTWOOD REMEMBERS `FISTFUL OF DOLLARS' DIRECTOR". Deseret News. Retrieved 8 January 2014.
- "For a Few Dollars More (1967)". Box Office Mojo. Amazon. Retrieved 22 January 2013.
- "Per qualche dollar in più - Box Office Data, DVD Sales, Movie News, Cast Information". The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved 8 January 2014.
- "Catalog Of Copyright Entries - Motion Pictures And Filmstrips, 1968". Archive.org. Library Of Congress, Copyright Office. Retrieved 15 December 2016.
- "The Good, The Bad And The Ugly - Release Info". IMDb.com. Retrieved 15 December 2016.
- "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1967)". Box Office Mojo. Amazon. Retrieved 8 January 2014.
- "Il buono, il burtto, il cattivo - Box Office Data, DVD Sales, Movie News, Cast Information". The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved 16 April 2012.
- "Per un pugno di dollari - Awards". Internet Movie Database. Amazon. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
- "Il buono, il burtto, il cattivo. - Awards". Internet Movie Database. Amazon.com. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
- "The Police, Queen, Morricone Honoured At Grammy Hall Of Fame". Uncut. Retrieved 19 July 2014.
- Amazon.com: The Man with No Name Trilogy (A Fistful of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly): Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef, Gian Maria Volonté, Aldo Giuffrè, Luigi Pistilli, Rada Rassimov, Enzo Petito, Claudio Scarchilli, John Bartha, Livio Lorenzon, Antonio Casale, Sergio Leone, Adriano Bolzoni, Agenore Incrocci, Duccio Tessari, Fernando Di Leo, Fulvio Morsella, Furio Scarpelli, Jaime Comas Gil: Movies & TV. amazon.com. ISBN 0792842502.
- "Amazon.com: The Man with No Name Trilogy (A Fistful of Dollars / For a Few Dollars More / The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly) [Blu-ray]: Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef, Gian Maria Volonté, Aldo Giuffrè, Luigi Pistilli, Rada Rassimov, Enzo Petito, Claudio Scarchilli, John Bartha, Livio Lorenzon, Antonio Casale, Sergio Leone, Adriano Bolzoni, Agenore Incrocci, Duccio Tessari, Fernando Di Leo, Fulvio Morsella, Furio Scarpelli, Jaime Comas Gil: Movies & TV". amazon.com.
Bibliography
- Eliot, Marc (2009). American Rebel: The Life of Clint Eastwood. Harmony Books. ISBN 978-0-307-33688-0.