Though the Western genre is past its heyday, stories of cowfolk, lawmen, outlaws, and more have enjoyed a bit of a renaissance in recent years. Taylor Sheridan has been one of the biggest contributors, tackling the genre through a more modern lens with Yellowstone and Landman and a more traditional approach with 1883 and 1923. Beyond the small screen, 2025’s Train Dreams once again brought the genre into Oscar contention with an emotional story of a railroad worker coming to terms with the loss of his wife among the forests of Idaho and Washington. However, there remains a single trilogy of films that Westerns live in the shadow of to this day.
The Dollars Trilogy — comprising A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and best known of all, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly — was pivotal in establishing the lower-budget Spaghetti Western and, in turn, influencing the wider genre’s future. It wasn’t just a watershed release for the Western, but also introduced one of its best antiheroes in the grizzled, cigarillo-smoking Man With No Name, played by one of its brightest stars, Clint Eastwood. After first rising to fame with the television series Rawhide, Eastwood broke out as a globally-known presence with the Sergio Leone-directed films. Along with its distinct visuals and memorable scores that are practically synonymous with scenes of old West duels and cowboys riding into the sunset, he helped power all three films to widespread critical acclaim, with the final installment being hailed as one of the greatest movies to ever grace the silver screen.
Unfortunately, these pieces of cinematic history will become a bit harder to watch when they leave the free streaming platform Pluto TV. The entire Dollars Trilogy is set to ride off the service on February 28, leaving less than a month for Western fans to catch up on the classics. A Fistful of Dollars kicks off the Man with No Name’s story when he arrives in the bordertown of San Miguel and gets tangled up in a gang war between two rival smuggling families, the Rojos and the Baxters, playing them against each other to ultimately take both out and re-establish peace. Although it was an unsanctioned remake of Akira Kurosawa’s samurai classic Yojimbo, it proved an excellent proof of concept, laying the groundwork for the even better-received For a Few Dollars More. That film sees the man forced to join a rival bounty hunter in the search for the jailbroken bandit, El Indio, clashing with his unlikely partner over their purpose for wanting to take down the criminal.
‘The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly’ Perfected Leone and Eastwood’s Formula
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly served as the culmination of everything Leone and Eastwood had built together, even though it was more of a prequel. Eastwood’s Man with No Name is The Good, next to Lee Van Cleef‘s The Bad, a mercenary named “Angel Eyes,” and Eli Wallach‘s The Ugly, a cunning yet bumbling Mexican bandit named Tuco. Initially, the man forms a tenuous partnership with the outlaw to make some quick cash, turning Tuco in at various towns for his bounty, then freeing him and splitting the reward money. Their alliance quickly sours after the scheme goes awry, and the bandit seeks to have the stranger killed, until word of a Union soldier’s buried gold once again forces them together. Packed with close-up shots, violent shootouts, and an iconic score, it would set its three leads on a collision course, ending in one of cinema’s most iconic stand-offs. The film would be as much a financial success as it was a critical one, too, scoring nearly $39 million at the box office on a budget of just $1.2 million.
The Dollars Trilogy will leave Pluto TV at the end of February. Stay tuned here at Collider for more on the biggest films coming to and departing streaming throughout the year.
Release Date
December 22, 1966
Runtime
161 minutes