The Man With No Name and seemingly no past, a laconic gringo and quintessential anti-hero who kills for profit, rides into an impover­ished town that is being torn apart by a power struggle for land between two competing fami­lies. The gunslinging drifter offers his profession­al services as a mercenary to the highest bidder.

The utilisation of minimal dialogue and maxi­mum visuals is in line with Leone's credo of 'Visuals first, words second'. The film was shot in southern Spain, near the town of Almena, a loca­tion previously used for Biblical epics but hence­forth for dozens of cheaply produced Eurowesterns.