On This Day

A Fistful of Dollars released

September 12th 1964

14:39 12 September 2024

Sergio Leone's 'A Fistful of Dollars' opened in cinemas in Italy on this day in 1964. Promoting the movie proved difficult as the major distributors were reluctant to take a risk on a western made outside of Hollywood by an unknown director and with actor Clint Eastwood in his first leading role. Early reviews from the Italian critics were negative but the movie was popular with filmgoers, grossing 2.7 billion lire at the box office, more than any other Italian film at the time. A release in the United States was delayed until 1967 because the film was seen as an unofficial remake of Akira Kurosawa's 'Yojimbo' (1961) and US distributors were concerned the Japanese director might sue.

Leone and Kurosawa eventually settled out of court but by then what was the first of the "Dollars Trilogy" had become a big international hit and turned Clint Eastwood into a major movie star.

'A Fistful of Dollars' has long since been reassessed by critics and is now regarded as being hugely influential on the western genre. At a showing of the movie at the 67th Cannes Film Festival in 2014 to celebrate the "50th anniversary of the birth of the Spaghetti Western" Sergio Leone's film was described by host Quentin Tarantino as "the greatest achievement in the history of cinema".