The Classic Western That Clint Eastwood Compared To James Bond

It's no accident that when you envision Clint Eastwood in his most iconic roles, it's often accompanied by a cowboy hat and the scowl that made him one of our great movie stars. He's had a prolific career across just about every genre from action movies ("Dirty Harry") to psychological thrillers ("Play Misty For Me") and even romance dramas ("The Bridges of Madison County"). But let's face it, the man has a face that was born to star in westerns.

Eastwood's hail mary casting on the western television show "Rawhide," which he describes as a fluke, opened the door for more opportunities in the industry. He didn't take many roles across his impressive eight season stretch as cattle poker Rowdy Yates, but it didn't matter because the one he did secure led to the birth of one of his most recognizable characters and some of the best spaghetti westerns ever made.

It's hard to not be in awe of "A Fistful of Dollars," the first in Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone's "Dollars" trilogy. Bore out of Akira Kurosawa's "Yojimbo," Leone's masterful shoot-em-up became one of the blueprints for an entire subgenre and countless action filmmakers in its wake. Smack dab in the middle of such a cultural milestone is Eastwood as the mysterious Man With No Name, even though this character technically has one – Joe. He would further build upon the gruff anti-hero archetype in the film's sequels "For a Few Dollars More" and "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly."

When it came to describing his presence in "A Fistful of Dollars," Eastwood made a strange comparison point to another popular screen character.

In a 1965 interview with the Associated Press, Eastwood equated his drifter character as an extension of none other than 007 (via MeTV):

"In fact [...] I did it for peanuts, less than I get for 'Rawhide.' I just liked the script. It's so far out that I guess you could call it a James Bond Western. I'm supposed to be the hero, but there's only a thin line between me and the heavy."

Eastwood's not too far off with how narrow the veil is between protagonist and the antagonist. The Man with No Name ushered in the era of the antihero, a figure who does the right thing albeit for reasons that benefit them more than anything. In "A Fistful of Dollars," our "hero" triumphs over Gian Maria Volonté's Rámon only after he allows countless people to die before he gets his shot.

When it comes to 007, the secret agent may engage in a morally complex grey area to do what's necessary to complete his task, but is operating on a completely different ethos. Eastwood's drifter doesn't really answer to anyone, emotionally or logically, to anyone besides himself, nor does he set out on pre-determined missions to neutralize the film's villain.

Bond, meanwhile, always answers to a higher authority. He may not always follow the orders of his bosses at MI6 to the letter, but the character's destructive actions come with a purpose. There's a methodical routine as opposed to the Man with No Name's aimless trail of adventure. In that way, it's difficult to see "A Fistful of Dollars" as a spy western.

If there's any Eastwood film to be held up in comparison to a Bond movie, it's "The Eiger Sanction."

Eastwood has played cowboys, drug mules, cops, and thieves, but there's only one movie in which he plays a killer with an affinity for paintings and climbing perilous mountainsides.

Based on the 1972 novel of the same name, "The Eiger Sanction" is an American riff on the Bond movies. In addition to directing it, Eastwood also stars in it as Jonathan Hemlock, an art professor who's brought back into the killing fold to carry out a deadly sanction against the men that murdered a friend and fellow agent. The mission: infiltrate a mountain-climbing group set to ascend to the top of Switzerland's Eiger mountain and take out one of its members. Hemlock initially refuses, but his boss (Thayer David) at the secret government facility known as C2 threatens to report his stolen art to the IRS.

There's a lot of things that makes "The Eiger Sanction" feel like such a bizarro spin on Bond. The novel was more of a parody, while the film sidesteps its satire. For one, the C2 headquarters look like if M spent his time in a secluded techno lair drenched in red. Even more importantly, it features Eastwood seducing beautiful women, a laughably homophobic side antagonist this side of "Diamonds are Forever," and some death-defying stunt work. Yet, in spite of its late '70s idiosyncrasies, it still manages to be incredibly boring.

"The Eiger Sanction" is worth a look, however, as a prime example of why an American-led Bond movie isn't always the best idea.

"A Fistful of Dollars" is currently streaming on Prime Video.