Before “Escape from Alcatraz,” “Dirty Harry” and his own career spanning decades as a director, Clint Eastwood starred in Sergio Leone’s spaghetti western. While he was still years removed from his first directorial effort when he filmed 1964’s A Fistful of Dollars, Eastwood already had a keen understanding of what he wanted from movies, as well as a willingness to speak his mind. This actually led him to rewrite part of the film’s script. Eastwood explained the reason for this in a 1985 interview with Rolling Stone:
“The script was very explanatory, yes. It was a harrowing story, and I thought there should be a lot more mystery to the person. I continued to tell Sergio. “In a real A picture, you let the audience think with the film; in a B picture you explain everything.’ It was my way of selling my point. For example, there was a scene where he decides to save the woman and the child. She says, “Why are you doing this?” In the script he just goes on forever. He talks about his mother, all kinds of subplots that come out of nowhere, and it goes on and on and on. I thought it wasn’t necessary, so I just rewrote the scene the night before we shot it.”
Yes, without Eastwood’s literal last-minute script doctoring, the Man With No Name might have given us not only his name, but also his family’s address, bank details and entire background. You can probably see why this would have taken some of the mystery out of the character. Eastwood certainly did, and by standing his ground, he played no small part in elevating arguably the genre’s most iconic gunslinger to his legendary status – both in front of the camera and behind the scenes.
Eastwood’s vision for the man with no name turned out to be correct
Clint Eastwood was cast in the Western show “Rawhide” as a fluke, which in turn led to his work with Sergio Leone. In other words, the man already knew his way around a Western, and in retrospect it’s not hard to see why Eastwood felt the need to tinker with the script. Although no one could have known it for sure at the time, the “A Fistful of Dollars” star was about to become much more than just a popular actor. As of 2024, he has 45 directors to his name and no less than four Academy Awards for his various contributions to filmmaking.
Eastwood was only in his thirties during his Sergio Leone era, but his “A Fistful of Dollars” episode of script rewriting still proves he was already forming the uncompromising vision and dedication that has been so evident in his finest work. The fact that the Dollars Trilogy sticks to Eastwood’s vision of a protagonist who has absolutely no penchant for long monologues seems to be a pretty clear indication that Leone stopped agreeing with his star as well. There are many ways “A Fistful of Dollars” could have been an absolute disaster, and only a single production mistake ended up costing millions for the movie. Even so, the film endured, and Eastwood certainly did his share of heavy lifting to ensure its path to classic status.
