The Spaghetti Western's Debt to the Samurai Film

Fri, 18 Apr 2025 13:00:00 +0000

In 1964 Sergio Leone made a low-budget Western in Spain called Per un pugno di dollari, sold it across Europe under a stack of Anglicised pseudonyms, and turned a television actor named Clint Eastwood into the most famous squint in cinema. He also, quite plainly, stole it. A Fistful of Dollars is Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo (1961) transposed almost scene for scene from a lawless Japanese town to a lawless Mexican border town, the ronin’s sword swapped for the drifter’s revolver. Kurosawa noticed. Toho, his studio, sued, and they won — Kurosawa reportedly told Leone that it was a fine film, but it was his film, and he collected a percentage and the Japanese distribution rights for his trouble. He is said to have made more from A Fistful of Dollars than he made from Yojimbo itself.

Spaghetti-Western - vo.rs

The Spaghetti Western's Debt to the Samurai Film