This one copied Yojimbo to the point where even some dialogue was lifted. I saw yojimbo recently and when i started watching this i imediatelly started doing seeing how blatant the copy was.
The spirit of abysmal despair

Who cares
Fistful is way better

It's almost a shot by shot remake. Leone even uses Eastwood as sick, hidden in a cart, to get transported into enemy territory.

Yea its a clear re-make of Yojimbo just transported to the Western genre.
Last Man Standing with Bruce Willis is another example.
All great movies in my opinion. This Is how you do a re-make. Remove it from its setting and don't trade off on the title.

Definitely Yojimbo. Also made several years later with Bruce Willin in Last Man Standing.
Many Japanese films were later remade into American Westerns. Many people are familiar with The Magnificent Seven. What they don't know is it was copied from Japan's The Seven Samurai, one of the best films out of Japan. My advice: Check out listings for showings of Anita Kurosawa films and others. Turner Classic Movies is a good place to start.

Having seen Yojimbo there is no doubt that this is a remake.
And the fact that a settlement was made to Kurosawa to give him part of the box-office receipts proves it really.
However, if the movie had been a flop would Kurosawa have sued? Unlikely. He was after a share of the lucrative US box-office.

Eastwood met Kurosawa years after the legal tangles, and both of them had a laugh over Eastwood owing his fame to an Italian Western remake of YOJIMBO.

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It's a remake. Just by looking at the opening you can clearly say that. Mifune and Eastwood do the excact same thing in the excact same way. There are many differences but ultimately Leone copied quite a bit from Yojimbo.
You see things; and you say Why? But I dream things that never were and I say Why not?

No, it's more or less a western remake of Yojimbo.

but - did Kurosawa not plagiarize Dashiell Hammett's "Red Harvest" equally?
I don't know if what you're saying is true or not, but you're invoking a two wrongs make a right fallacy.

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I remember seeing Kurosawa's name on Last Man Standing poster when it was being released in my town theater. So I am guessing that all the legal stuff had been handled and no rip off committed.

Clint Eastwood said that when he read the script for "A Fistful Of Dollars", he recognized that it was a Western version of "Yojimbo", which is one reason he wanted to do it. Now "Last Man Standing" (1996) with Bruce Willis is a ripoff of "A Fistful Of Dollars" if ever I saw one.

Hey Mgtbltp,
Your point is well taken. "Yojimbo" is different from Hammett's "Red Harvest," but "Fistfull of Dollars" is also just as different from "Yojimbo." I don't understand how Kurosawa was able to succeed in his claim against Leone.
Best wishes,
Dave Wile

but - did Kurosawa not plagiarize Dashiell Hammett's "Red Harvest" equally?

Leone definitely reworked Kurosawa's Yojimbo, setting it just below the Mexican border instead of in Japan and with a mysterious stranger instead of a former Samurai. Yojimbo was one of Leone's favorite films that he had seen numerous times.
This doesn't mean that Leone didn't make a great film. Leone made it his own through his his own vision, tone, and style. Ennio Morricone's score also helps give the film its own identity. Leone was smart to realize that 'Yojimbo' would work well as a Western.