Release and Reception
A Fistful of Dollars was released in Italy in September 1964. Over the film's theatrical release, it grossed more than any other Italian film up to that point. Three years later, the film debuted in the United States in January 1967, where it grossed $4.5 million for the year. It eventually grossed $14.5 million in its American release.
In order to give a moral justification for the violence of the film for American broadcast television audiences, a four and a half minute prologue was added to the film for its ABC television debut. Written and directed by Monte Hellman, it featured an unidentified official (Harry Dean Stanton) offering The Man With No Name a chance at a pardon in exchange for cleaning up the mess in San Miguel. Eastwood does not portray his character in the prologue. This prologue appeared on the Special Edition DVD and the more recent Blu-ray, along with an interview with Monte Hellman about its making.
The film was described as a phenomenal success in Italy and Europe by The New York Times soon after its debut in the United States. Bosley Crowther stated that nearly every Western cliche could be found in this "egregiously synthetic but engrossingly morbid, violent film." He went on to praise Eastwood's depiction of a half-gangster/half-cowboy and noted the plethora of violent spectacles as another distinction in the film.
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