A Fistful of Dollarsmay have been the film that turned Clint Eastwood into a star, but it’s also a clear copy of the earlier released samurai epic,Yojimbo. BeforeA Fistful of Dollars, Eastwood had found consistent success on television in shows likeRawhideand had appeared in supporting film roles. However,A Fistful of Dollarswas his first starring role in a feature film and became the actor’s big break. The success ofA Fistful of Dollarsintroduced global audiences to the Spaghetti Western and revitalized the genre, setting the stage for some of the genre’s best films.
A few years beforeA Fistful of Dollars, legendary directorAkira Kurosawa’sYojimbobecame a massive success in Japan before spreading to a global audience. Both films focus on a nameless antihero, with the similarities between the films' plots even leading to a lawsuit fromYojimbo’s production company Toho againstA Fistful of Dollarsdirector Sergio Leone. Despite the clear similarities though, bothA Fistful of DollarsandYojimboare fantastic movies in their own right, with an influence on cinema that carries on to this day and highlights how similar stories can still result in differing (and impressive) results.
Yojimbo And A Fistful Of Dollars Are Basically The Same Movie
YojimboAndA Fistful Of DollarsFollow The Same Plot And Have Very Similar Protagonists
YojimboandFistful of Dollarshave many structural and conceptual similarities, with the filmmakers behind the former even suing the latter over the issue. BothYojimboandFistful of Dollarsfollow a nameless protagonist, a wandering anti-hero who finds himself in a town torn apart by criminal interests. InYojimbo, the ronin eventually known as Kuwabatake Sanjuro finds a splintered Yakuza gang, while Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name encounters two families of smugglers. Both decide to fan the flames of conflict to earn some cash, with Sanjuro and the Man With No Name using trickery to escalate the conflict.
However, both antiheroes reveal a spark of humanity when they ensure a captured woman and her family get the chance to escape the grasp of one of the gangs under the guise of joining the gang. Captured and tortured for this, the hero is saved by a local coffinmaker they’d befriended. Returning to the town to confront the winner of the ensuing gang war, the nameless hero brings down the last criminals and simply leaves town, off on another adventure.While the western and samurai settings shift certain elements, the similarities are blatant enough that courts had to get involved.
Yojimbo Succesfully Sued A Fistful Of Dollars For Infringement
Yojimbodirector Akira Kurosawa had long been focused on themes of corruption and societal upheaval in post-World War II Japan, withYojimboserving as a purely cathartic approach to confronting the banal evil men are capable of for money and power. The film was a massive success when it was released in 1961, withAkira Kurosawa Newsnoting that its influence was felt globally. This is especially true with Sergio Leone’sA Fistful of Dollars, which was released in Italy in 1964. However,Sergio Leone effectively remadeYojimbowith no authorization from Kurosawa, something not lost on theYojimbofilmmaker.
Kurosawa and Toho were awarded 15% of all revenue generated byA Fistful of Dollars. This proved to be a lucrative compromise, with the success ofA Fistful of Dollarsearning Kurosawa a small fortune.
Kurosawa sent Leone a letter stating “I have just had the chance to see your film. It is a very fine film, but it is my film. Since Japan is a signatory of the Berne Convention on the international copyright, you must pay me.” Despite arguing that other stories had influencedA Fistful of Dollarsin equal measure, Leone settled the lawsuit out of court.Kurosawa and Toho were awarded 15% of all revenue generated byA Fistful of Dollars. This proved to be a lucrative compromise, with the success ofA Fistful of Dollarsearning Kurosawa a small fortune.
Both Yojimbo And A Fistful Of Dollars Set Off Entire Franchises
The Nameless Ronin And The Man With No Name Will (And Did) Return
The success ofYojimboandA Fistful of Dollarsresulted in more films focused on both characters, proving that a duplicate can still succeed alongside the original.The success ofYojimboled to a direct sequel in 1962’sSanjuro, which focuses on the nameless ronin (adopting a new name in a new town) working alongside a group of samurai to protect their local lord. Meanwhile,A Fistful of Dollars' success led to more films about the Man With No Name, cementingEastwood as a movie starwithFor a Few Dollars MoreandThe Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
Beyond influencingA Fistfull of Dollars,Yojimboalso directly inspired other westerns likeDjango, samurai films likeIncident at Blood Pass, the fantasy filmThe Warrior and the Sorceress, and the Prohibition-era gangster filmLast Man Standing.
Both characters would become iconic within their respective genres, with the influence of both felt for decades later.Yojimbo’s creative DNA impacted the western genre as a whole, and allusions to the film can be found in everything fromStar WarstoSaturday Night Live.The Man With No Name helped set off a slew of “Spaghetti Westerns"that helped revitalize the entire genre. While both films may be very similar, the success ofYojimboandA Fistful of Dollarsat the on-set of greater cultural shifts in the 1960s makes them both uniquely influential and important to cinema history.
Which Is Better, Yojimbo Or A Fistful Of Dollars?
A Fistful Of DollarsHelped Set Up Eastwood For Bigger Heights, WhileYojimboRemains A Stone-Cold Classic
BothYojimboandA Fistful of Dollarsare great movies in their own right. Both feature compelling riffs on the anti-hero archetype that don’t lose of any of their inherent menace even while revealing a moral core. Each film uses their respective setting to their advantage, exploring themes of corruption from their respective post-war directors. Both films have a gritty approach to violence, with gun battles and sword duels lacking any sophistication and tight choreography that later films would employ.The bluntness of the violence in both films is a strength, underscoring the cynical world and rules of both movies.
However,Yojimbobenefits greatly from Kurosawa’s unique sensibilities. This infuses the film with a greater sense of tragedy and comedy, with Toshiro Mifune playing the ronin with an overt layer of cynical bravado that barely conceals the hero underneath. The themes of corruption are more prevalent inYojimboas well, which focuses on an unrelentingly cynical setting and group of characters. While the difference between two great films likely comes down to personal preference between westerns and samurai films,A Fistful of Dollarswas a great start for Eastwood whileYojimbo’s strengths make it an enduring highlight of its genre.
Yojimbo / Sanjuro: Two Samurai Films by Akira Kurosawa is now available from the Criterion Collection
Yojimbo
Cast
A wandering ronin arrives in a town torn apart by two rival gangs. Using his cunning and swordsmanship, he pits the factions against each other, manipulating the situation to his advantage while dismantling the criminal empires from within, ultimately restoring peace through calculated chaos and deception.
A Fistful of Dollars
A Fistful of Dollars is a spaghetti Western film from director Sergio Leone starring Clint Eastwood. A Fistful of Dollars is notable for being Clint Eastwood’s big break in Hollywood and also for being the beginning of the “Dollars Trilogy.” The film was followed by For a Few Dollars More in 1965 and The Good, The Bad and the Ugly in 1966.
