Why Clint Eastwood Had To Rewrite The Original Fistful Of Dollars Script

Before "Escape from Alcatraz," "Dirty Harry," and his own decades-spanning career as a director, Clint Eastwood starred in Sergio Leone's spaghetti Westerns. While he was still years away from his first directorial work while filming 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 rewriting a part of the movie's script. Eastwood explained the reason for this in a 1985 interview with Rolling Stone:   

"The script was very expository, yeah. It was an outrageous story, and I thought there should be much more mystery to the person. I kept telling Sergio. 'In a real A picture, you let the audience think along with the movie; in a B picture, you explain everything.' That was my way of selling my point. For instance, 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 no-where, and it goes on and on and on. I thought that was not essential, 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 not only have given us his name, but his family's address, banking details, and entire backstory as well. You can probably see why this would have taken some mystery away from the character. Eastwood certainly did, and by standing his ground, he played no small part in bringing the genre's arguably most iconic gunslinger to his legendary status — both in front of the camera and behind the scenes. 

Clint Eastwood got 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 hindsight, it's not hard to see why Eastwood felt the need to tinker with the script. While no one could have known it for sure at the time, the "A Fistful of Dollars" star was on his way to become far more than just a popular actor. As of 2024, he has 45 directing credits to his name, and no less than four Academy Awards for his various contributions to the craft of movie-making.

Eastwood was only in his thirties during his Sergio Leone era, but his "A Fistful of Dollars" script rewriting episode still proves that he was already forming the uncompromising vision and dedication that have been so evident in his finest work. The fact that the Dollars Trilogy adheres to Eastwood's vision of a protagonist who has absolutely no penchant for lengthy monologues seems like a pretty clear indication that Leone ended up agreeing with his star, as well. There are many ways that "A Fistful of Dollars" could have been an absolute disaster, and just a single production mistake ended up costing millions for the movie. Even so, the film persevered, and Eastwood certainly did his share of heavy lifting to ensure its path to classic status.