This is a collective term for Sergio Leone’s three spaghetti Westerns starring Clint Eastwood: Per un pugno di dollari (1964) ; Per qualche dollaro in piu (1965) ; and Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (1966), all released in the United States in 1967 as A Fistful of Dollars; For a Few Dollars More; and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. While the three films are usually associated as a trilogy because of their cinematic, thematic, and musical style and because they all star Clint Eastwood, they are actually unrelated to each other by plot. None is a sequel to the other. In each film, Eastwood played a character who has been dubbed “the Man with No Name” by fans and critics, but he is actually named in each film — Joe (A Fistful of Dollars), Monco (For a Few Dollars More), and Blondie (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly). Technically, Eastwood played a different character in each film, but he dressed with similar style and was consistently a man of few words from nowhere. All three films emphasize the antihero nature of the Man with No Name, and all three are characterized by Ennio Morricone’s hauntingly original music.
Historical Dictionary of Westerns in Cinema. Paul Varner. 2012.