Sweat, tequila, shirts unbuttoned to the navel, and a scintillating playlist are bound to evoke summer vibes. Throw in spurs, close-ups, and big hats and you’ve got yourselves a real party. All you need to put together a hot cowboy summer aesthetic can be found in the 1964 film "A Fistful of Dollars."
The film, showing Tuesday, July 2, at the Ambler Theater, was the first film to popularize the spaghetti Western genre. Produced and directed by Italian filmmakers, the movies were mostly shot in southern Italy and Spain, and featured international casts. Clint Eastwood got his start in films with "A Fistful of Dollars," the first in a trio that continued with "For a Few Dollars More,” and ended with “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.”
The film will also provide moviegoers with subliminal fashion tips. Embrace the rugged look with distressed jeans, cowboy boots, and wide-brimmed hats. Eastwood created the look of his famous character, the Man with No Name, from clothes he found and bought around Hollywood and the Sunset Strip. He got the pants from a shop on Hollywood Boulevard; the hat from a Santa Monica wardrobe firm; and the gun, gunbelt, and spurs were props from the set of Eastwood’s TV show “Rawhide.” The trademark poncho was courtesy of the film’s director, Sergio Leone.
Leone couldn’t film in the American Southwest, so he made the West come to Italy. He filmed in the Spanish desert, in a small bleach-white town where Eastwood’s taciturn cowboy plays two feuding families against one another for his own profit. Leone and his designers embraced the cowboy aesthetic to tell a simple story of a stranger riding into a dangerous town and attempting to survive and thrive through his wits and skills while drinking, not paying his bills, sleeping in his clothes, and being nosy about the most attractive person in town. If that sounds like too much fun, it almost was for the Man with No Name. He wound up with a number of bullet holes in his poncho.
Even if you haven’t seen any of this trio of spaghetti Westerns, you are still likely familiar with those films’ award-winning scores by Ennio Morricone, an Italian composer of over 400 film and TV scores. Because of budget limits, Morricone lacked access to a full orchestra for "A Fistful of Dollars." Nevertheless, he made inventive and memorable use of gunshots, whistles, chanting, cracking whips, and the then-new Fender electric guitar.
"Some of the music was written before the film, which is unusual," Morricone said in a 2007 interview published in The Guardian. "Leone's films were made like that because he wanted the music to be an important part of it, and he often kept the scenes longer simply because he didn't want the music to end. That's why the films are so slow — because of the music." The score should definitely be woven into your hot cowboy summer playlist along with Orville Peck, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, and songs from Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter.”
“Fistful” was shot in Spain in only 8 weeks for $200,000. What he lacked in funds, Leone made up for with a fresh and distinctive visual style of intense, almost painterly close-ups and sweeping panoramic long shots.
When it comes to drinks, no hot cowboy summer is complete without the right cowboy beverage. Channel your inner gunslinger looking up recipes for the "A Fistful of Dollars" or spaghetti Western cocktails.
Bring your own creativity to your hot cowboy summer. Host a campfire party with s’mores, take your gang to a swimming hole, saddle up for some horseback riding, try line-dancing, and if you find cowboy boots in your size at the thrift store or vintage market, definitely buy them.
By the time you're done, you'll not only look the part but feel as though you've stepped straight out of a classic spaghetti Western. Whether you're sipping whiskey at a themed party or riding into the sunset on a summer evening, "A Fistful of Dollars" has all the inspiration you need for your sizzling hot cowboy summer.
Dust off your boots, head out to see "A Fistful of Dollars," showing at 4 and 7 p.m., Tuesday, July 2, during Ambler Theater’s Hollywood Summer Nights series.
