A wandering gunfighter plays two rival families against each other in a town torn apart by greed, pride, and revenge. First released in Italy in 1964 and then in the United States in 1967, it initiated the popularity of the spaghetti Western film genre. It was followed by For a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), also starring Clint Eastwood. Collectively, the films are commonly known as the 'Dollars Trilogy' or 'The Man With No Name Trilogy' (in the USA, the United Artists publicity campaign referred to Eastwood's character in all 3 films as the 'Man with No Name'). The film is an unofficial remake of the Akira Kurosawa film Yojimbo (1961), resulting in a successful lawsuit by Toho.