From the virginal black snow of ash, from the unbroken soft ground around the craters, and from the very impenetrability of the jungle, it was all too obvious that no one had trodden here for years. From the extraordinary extent of the destruction, it was clear that no fortifications would have been adequate, no matter how deep or solid. The Mountains of the Moon were as completely uninhabited as those from which they took their name, and on the other ridgelines, the other units were reporting the same thing. The Pig Battalion were the first people to traverse this terrain for many years—this myth, unlike most legends, had grown from absolutely no basis at all. But, as always, it was just when you got thinking that there was no danger, that you were in the greatest trouble of all.
 
Many people regard A Fistful of Dollars as the first spaghetti western but it is far from it. Europeans love westerns and when Hollywood basically stopped making them, they set about making their own. Between 1960 and 1975, over 600 westerns were made in Europe. The Italians, Germans and Spanish were especially enamoured of them, and A Fistful of Dollars, ripped off from a Japanese Martial arts movie,  is so typical, it is hard to see why it stood out from the pack. Certainly not because of exiled minor TV actor Clint Eastwood, and even Sergio Leone’s photography and Morricone’s fine music did not reach the heights that were to follow. But take off in USA it did, and movies were never quite the same again.