A Fistful of Dollars

Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars opened in Italy in 1964, made on a tight budget at Cinecittà and on Spanish locations in Almería, and more or less founded the Spaghetti Western. It was an unauthorised and uncredited remake of Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo (1961). Kurosawa sued successfully for international distribution rights and eventually received 15% of worldwide grosses and an out-of-court settlement. With its two sequels, the film made Clint Eastwood one of the most internationally recognised faces in cinema.

A nameless drifter in a poncho (Eastwood, in his first major film role after years of television Westerns) rides into a small Mexican border town held in deadlock by two warring families, the Rojos and the Baxters, and sets about playing one against the other for his own profit, using the town's contraband trade as his lever. Gian Maria Volonté plays the volatile Ramón Rojo. Massimo Dallamano's photography, all close-ups of squinting eyes and wide landscapes of negative space, fixed the look the genre would keep.

Ennio Morricone composed his score before shooting, and it was played on set: whistled motifs, electric guitar and percussive sound effects unlike any earlier Western soundtrack. Leone followed with For a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). The trilogy made Eastwood a star, put Leone among the major stylists of the 1960s and rewrote the genre's conventions.