A Fistful of Dollars: Limited Edition – Arrow Video (4k UHD)

Theatrical Release Date: Italy/Spain/West Germany, 1964
Director: Sergio Leone
Writers: Víctor Andrés Catena, Jaime Comas Gil, Sergio Leone, Fernando Di Leo, Ryûzô Kikushima, Duccio Tessari, Tonino Valeri
Cast: Clint Eastwood, Marianne Koch, Gian Maria Volontè, Wolfgang Lukschy, Sieghardt Rupp, Antonio Prieto, Mario Brega 

Release Date: May 12th, 2025
Approximate Running Time: 99 Minutes 46 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Widescreen / 2160 Progressive / HEVC / H.265 / Dolby Vision HDR10
Rating: 15 (UK)
Sound: DTS-HD Mono Italian, DTS-HD Mono English, DTS-HD 5.1 Italian, DTS-HD 5.1 English
Subtitles: English, English SDH
Region Coding: Region Free (4K UHD), Region B (Blu-ray)
Retail Price: £34.99 (UK)

"A nameless stranger (Eastwood) rides into the Mexican border town of San Miguel and quickly finds himself in the middle of a bloody battle for power between two rival families, the Baxters and the Rojos. Cannily realising there's money to be made from playing each side against the other, the Man with No Name soon finds himself caught in the crossfire as the body count escalates, his only chance of escape a standoff against the Rojos' mercilessly cruel leader, Ramón (Gian Maria Volonté)." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 5/5

Here’s the information provided about this release's presentation, "A Fistful of Dollars (Per un pugno di dollari) has been exclusively restored by Arrow Films and is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1. The soundtrack is presented in restored original mono Italian and English mono, as well as remixed Italian and English 5.1 audio.

The original 35mm 2-perf Techniscope camera negative was scanned and restored in 4K/16-bit resolution at L'immagine Ritrovata, Bologna. The film was further restored and color graded in SDR, HDR10 and Dolby Vision at Silver Salt Restoration, London.

The original Italian film and audio materials sourced for this new restoration were made available from Unidis Jolly Film SRL. Materials were delivered by the Cineteca di Bologna and L'immagine Ritrovata, Bologna.

Additional English picture and audio materials were made available from Amazon / MGM Studios.

A 35mm Inhibition Technicolor print was sourced from The Cinema Museum, London, for color reference.

Principal audio restoration on the original mono tracks was completed by Bad Princess Productions. Additional 5.1 audio restoration work was completed by Þorsteinn Gislason."

A Fistful of Dollars comes on a 100 GB triple layer 4K UHD.

Disc Size: 84.1 GB

Feature: 76.4 GB

I have lost count of how many times I have purchased A Fistful of Dollars across various home media formats, starting with VHS. It is an understatement to say that Sergio Leone's films have been treated poorly. Fortunately, recent years have seen a dedicated effort to address previous shortcomings. Based on the information provided about this release by Arrow Video and the viewing experience of this presentation, it is evident that Arrow Video's is the best home media release of A Fistful of Dollars to date. The source looks immaculate; flesh tones look perfect, colors have the right temperature and never look amped up, image clarity, contrast, black levels, and compression are solid, and the image always looks organic. Once again, Fidelity in Motion delivers an exemplary encode.

Audio: 5/5 (All Audio Tracks)

This release comes with four audio options, a DTS-HD mono mix in Italian, a DTS-HD mono mix in English, a DTS-HD 5.1 mix in Italian, and a DTS-HD 5.1 mix in English. The audio, like the video, has undergone extensive restoration, and all of the tracks sound outstanding. Dialog always comes through clearly, everything sounds balanced, and Ennio Morricone’s score sounds robust. When it comes to ambient noise, they never sound artificial; they are perfectly balanced. Included are removable English subtitles for the Italian language tracks and removable English SDH for the English language tracks.

Extras:

Extras on the 4K UHD disc include A Fistful of Dollars/For a Few Dollars More - Burning at Both Ends double feature - four radio spots (2 minutes 21 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), A Fistful of Dollars/For a Few Dollars More - Burning at Both Ends double feature - two TV spots (1 minute 23 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), A Fistful of Dollars/For a Few Dollars More - Burning at Both Ends double feature trailer (2 minutes 6 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), 10 radio spots (5 minutes 59 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), U.S. theatrical trailer (2 minutes 26 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), UK theatrical teaser (59 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), German theatrical trailer (3 minutes 38 seconds, Dolby Digital mono German with removable English subtitles), German re-release theatrical trailer (4 minutes 31 seconds, Dolby Digital mono text in German and English, no subtitles), Italian theatrical trailer (3 minutes 40 seconds, Dolby Digital mono Italian with removable English subtitles), an archival audio commentary with film historian and Sergio Leone biographer Sir Christopher Frayling, and an archival audio commentary with film historian and critic Tim Lucas.

There are two easter eggs on the 4K UHD disc. The first allows you to view the TV prologue before the main feature, and it can be found when selecting the English language version. The other is an alternate trailer that can be found in the trailer gallery.

Included with this release is a second disc (a Blu-ray), which contains most of the extras. Extras on the Blu-ray disc include three archival image galleries; A Fistful of Dollars On the Set, Promoting A Fistful of Dollars, and A Fistful in Pictures, three alternate credit sequences; German opening credits (2 minutes 46 seconds, Dolby Digital mono with text in German, no subtitles), original English credits (3 minutes 18 seconds, Dolby Digital mono with text in English, no subtitles), and Italian re-release credits (3 minutes 20 seconds), an archival featurette titled Locations Comparisons: Then and Now (5 minutes 22 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo, music from the film playing in the background), The Network Prologue with Harry Dean Stanton (7 minutes 45 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an archival interview with filmmaker Monte Hellman titled Not Ready for Primetime, he discusses A Fistful of Dollars’ U.S. television broadcast (6 minutes 21 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an archival featurette with screenwriter Sergio Donati, producer Alberto Grimaldi, and voice dubber Mickey Knox titled Tre Voci: Three Friends Remember Sergio Leone (11 minutes 13 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an archival interview with actor Clint Eastwood titled A Few Weeks in Spain (8 minutes 30 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an archival interview with Sir Christopher Frayling titled A New Kind of Hero (22 minutes 55 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an archival interview with Sir Christopher Frayling titled The Frayling Archives: A Fistful of Dollars (18 minutes 38 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an archival featurette on the film's remastering for DVD titled Restoration Italian Style (5 minutes 44 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an archival interview with actress Marianne Koch titled Marisol: Sergio Leone’s Madonna of the West (31 minutes 37 seconds, DTS-HD stereo German with non-removable English subtitles), highlights from the original rushes titled A Fistful of Outtakes (36 minutes 14 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo, music from the film playing in the background), a video essay by Lovely Jon titled The Day the Soundtrack Changed (22 minutes 36 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with filmmaker Paolo Bianchini titled A Night at the Movies (12 minutes 35 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with Ennio Morricone biographer Alessandro de Rosa titled Wind & Fire (16 minutes 56 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with guitarist Bruno Battisti D'Amario titled Four Fingers Four Picks (15 minutes 8 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), and an interview with film historian and critic Fabio Melelli titled When It All Started  (13 minutes 48 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles).

Other extras include reversible cover art, a slipcover (limited to the first pressing), a chipboard slipcase (limited to the first pressing), a double sided fold out poster (limited to the first pressing), and a 60-page perfect bound book (limited to the first pressing) with cast & crew information, an essay titled Strange and Magnificent written by Henry Blyth, an essay titled A Shot in the Arm for the Western written by Pasquale Iannone, an essay titled The Sound of a New Era written by Eloise Ross, and information about the presentation.

The extras for this release are comprehensive; they collect an abundance of archival content and add some new extras.

Summary:

When Sergio Leone directed A Fistful of Dollars, he had only directed The Colossus of Rhodes, a by-the-numbers Sword and Sandal film. And yet, by the time he unleashed A Fistful of Dollars, his growth as a filmmaker was substantial. And though the cinematic flourishes in Colossus of Rhodes foreshadow where Sergio Leone was going as a filmmaker, it is a film that stands out like a sore thumb in his filmography.

When discussing A Fistful of Dollars, it is always best to address the elephant in the room. It is widely acknowledged that A Fistful of Dollars is an unofficial remake of Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo, a film which is an uncredited adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest.

A Fistful of Dollars is overshadowed by the four spaghetti westerns directed by Sergio Leone that followed it. The result is a truly remarkable cinematic experience that influenced hundreds of films and put the spaghetti western genre on the map.

One thing that you can count on when it comes to spaghetti westerns is that most of them have opening sequences that give their protagonist a grand entrance. And in A Fistful of Dollars, Clint Eastwood’s character gets a spectacular entrance.

Speaking of Clint Eastwood, though he was not Sergio Leone’s original choice, It would be hard to imagine any other actor doing what Clint Eastwood did. He portrays a character who’s a man of few words and who lets his gun do most of the talking.

Another performance of note is Gian Maria Volontè (Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion) in the role of Ramón Rojo, the ringleader of one of the gangs that Clint Eastwood’s character pits against each other. He delivers another operatic performance that walks a fine line that comes close, but never goes over the top.

From a production standpoint, A Fistful of Dollars is a film that maximizes its resources and milks them for all their worth. Though the premise covers familiar ground, in Sergio Leone’s hands, it feels fresh. The well-executed narrative has an ample amount of action and double and triple crosses. With an exemplary finale shootout that provides a perfect climax. Another strength is Ennio Morrione’s remarkable score. Ultimately, A Fistful of Dollars is not only one of the best spaghetti westerns, it is one of the best westerns ever made.

A Fistful of Dollars gets a phenomenal release from Arrow Video. This film has never looked or sounded better, and there is a wealth of insightful extras. Highly recommended.

Note about the 4K screenshots: It is not possible to make Dolby Vision or HDR10 screenshots that faithfully match the experience of watching a film in motion on a TV. Instead of not having any screenshots, all of the 4K screenshots are m2ts taken with a MPC-HC player and lossless PNGs.

Written by Michael Den Boer