A Fistful of Dollars review

Number 269 on the top 1000 films of all time is Sergio Leone's 1964 Spaghetti Western 'A Fistful of Dollars.'

Clint Eastwood stars as 'the Man with No Name,' a mysterious drifter who becomes embroiled in a battle between two warring families in a Mexican border town. Believing there is money to be made, he decides to pit these families against each other, and to save the rest of the town from also being consumed by this conflict. 

A Fistful of Dollars marked a number of firsts. It was the first of the spaghetti Westerns to be brought before an American audience. It was the first of the 'Dollars trilogy,' and the first time that Eastwood would play the Man with no Name. But it also marked the first collaboration between Sergio Leone and composer Ennio Morricone. And the music was the first thing I noticed about this film. Morricone might be best known for the classic theme tune from the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, but I would argue he was just as good here, if not better. Every piece of music fitted the scene perfectly. Every note bolstered the tension. It was just brilliant.

I can't say the same for Clint Eastwood. I've never liked him as an actor, as I always feel he plays the same part over and over again. And that part is the grumpy old man. He has no depth beneath that. And 'a Fistful of Dollars' is where that all started. He played the gruff, anti-social loner and has been type-cast as that ever since. It was difficult to see any type of warmth from his role.

Yet Leone still directed a great film. The cinematography was brilliant as always with contrasting shots of the vast desert landscape to the extreme close-ups of the character's eyes at pivotal moments, which was a great way to build up the tension.

Many of my long-term readers will know all about my confusion as to why Italian films were recorded without sound and later had all the dialogue (badly) dubbed in. A Fistful of Dollars was no exception to this. I have finally found out the reason! It all goes back to Mussolini who made it as a law as he wanted to check all the dialogue for himself, just in case, it contained any subversive material. Even after his death, they continued the tradition. I don't know why, because it just looks so terrible, but the more you know.

I have to admit that generally I'm not a fan of Western films, but when you get a cowboy film that has Ennio Morricone scoring it, how can you not like it?

Blood Diamond Review

 Number 300 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 2006 thriller, and one of many Leonardo Dicaprio's acting nominations, Blood Diamond.

Set in civil-war ravaged Sierra Leone, Blood Diamond brings together mercenary Danny Archer (Dicaprio,) fisherman Solomon Vandy (Dijumon Hounsou) and journalist Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly) as they all try to bring some good into the world.

I bought my a girlfriend a diamond necklace for our one year anniversary. Having seen this film I don't think I'm ever going to buy another diamond again. Sorry Sam. But this film is a damning indictment of the diamond industry and a damning indictment of colonialism in general. In 2022, the horrors of colonialism are nothing new but this film still lays them bare.

The RUF brutally chops off the hands of the Sierra Leoneans who may otherwise vote against them, but they only learned this violence from their colonial oppressors. Chopping off limbs, as is pointed out in the film, is something that started with the Belgians in the Congo. And anybody who knows their colonial history knows about the atrocities that the Belgians committed.

And right from the start, we see this savagery in the evil Captain Poison (David Harewood.) He leads a division of the RUF who massacres Solomon's village and sends him to a diamond mine. Here he find a huge diamond, but he has to quickly bury it when the army come and send him to jail. Enter Leonardo Dicaprio as Danny and also where the film misses its mark a little.

Danny Archer has debts to pay and so agrees to reunite Solomon with his family in exchange for the diamond. But with the help of Maddy Bowen, he realises that he cares about more than money. While Leo was great in his role, I would argue that the character itself was cliched. How many times we seen a reluctant hero/lovable rogue overcome their morally questionable qualities to become a bonified hero? And this is usually with the help of an attractive female lead such as Jennifer Connelly. 

And So, I think the film focussed too much on the wrong character. Because Archer is a mercenary, he is used to fighting in a warzone whereas Solomon was not. Solomon was only a fisherman desperate to get back to his family. And I think that would have made him a far more interesting character to focus upon. He would have been a true fish out of water.

And maybe that's why the film didn't quite land for me. I could see it trying to make me angry or break my heart, but while I was sad, I certainly didn't shed any tears. For what it was, this was a powerful film with great performances by Dicaprio, Connelly and especially Hounsou, there was something holding it back true greatness.