My Name Is Nobody

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My Name is Nobody

Directed by	Tonino Valerii
Starring	Terence Hill Henry Fonda Jean Martin
Music by	Ennio Morricone
Editing by	Nino Baragli
Release date(s)	December, 1973
Running time	117 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

My Name is Nobody (also known as Il mio nome è Nessuno and Lonesome Gun) is a 1973 spaghetti western comedy film. The film was directed by Tonino Valerii and, in some scenes, by Sergio Leone.^[1] It was written by Sergio Leone, Fulvio Morsella and Ernesto Gastaldi. The cast includes Terence Hill, Henry Fonda, and Jean Martin. While Leone was officially only the producer, his directorial hand is seen in many moving shots and action sequences, and the style of the production is pure Sergio Leone but with a twist--this one's a comedy.

It was released under various names in America, Italy, France, and West Germany. It has a runtime of 111 minutes for the TCM print, and 117 minutes outside of America.

The film was Fonda's final western. Hill has said it remains his favorite film among those in which he starred.

There are many implied puns on the name "Nobody", a resource dating at least from the Polyphemus adventure in the Odyssey. An example would be when the driver of the train runs out of the public urinal and yells: "But who's driving it? Who?" (Referring to the train that has been stolen). To viewers, the answer is obvious: Nobody is driving it.

The film was made by Sergio Leone and his team as a kind of "answer" to the way that the Spaghetti Western, the trend to make "all-American" movies by Italian companies (mostly on location in Spain around the town of Almeria) which Leone had begun with "A Fistfull Of Dollars" (starring Clint Eastwood) had become almost a spoof of itself unintentionally. They decided that if anyone was going to make the ultimate "joke" Spaghetti Western it should be them, and they specifically hired Terrence Hill because he'd been in so many of the overdone, similarly-named productions and was a kind of icon of the genre but had never been given the chance to show off his comedy talents.

Among the many "in" jokes in the film are the name "Sam Peckinpaugh" on a tombstone, especially relevant since the huge gang of bad guys in the movie is called the "Wild Bunch" and, of course, wear the famous long-tailed duster coats that Leone actually started (based on historical photographs) but Peckinpah adopted in his films. Familiar-faced actors such as R.G. Armstrong (erroneously credited as "R.K. Armstrong"), Geoffrey Lewis, Steve Kanaly, and other classic American western stars appear in the film which was shot partially in New Mexico and, for the final scenes, New Orleans, as well as Leone's favorite Spanish locales. This is the second time Fonda worked with Leone, the former being Fonda's only turn as a bad guy in the classic Once Upon a Time in the West.

The musical score is by longtime Leone collaborator Ennio Morricone, with its whimsical main theme presaging many of his later non-Western scores, and his adaptation of Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" for the Wild Bunch's theme typical of the "over the top" nature of the movie's sense of humor.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Jack Beauregard (Henry Fonda) is a tired, aging legend, who just wants to retire in peace in Europe to get away from young gunmen constantly trying to test themselves against the master. 'Nobody' (Terence Hill's character) idolizes Beauregard and wants to see him die in a blaze of glory going against the infamous Wild Bunch singlehanded. These are a gang of bandits who launder their loot of stolen gold via a fake goldmine, and the owner sends them after Beauregard because his now-dead brother was in on the deal.

Nobody dogs Beauregard through the west, encountering many who wish him dead, and pesters him to let him stage his grand finale. Eventually, the grand shoot-out does take place by a railway line. Nobody arranges for Beauregard to shoot at the Wild Bunch's mirrored-concho-decorated saddles which, he's discovered, contain sticks of dynamite, thus letting a few good shots eliminate many of the men. To escape, they board a train that Nobody has stolen.

Finally, Nobody fakes a very public showdown with Beauregard, "killing" him and allowing him to slip away quietly. A streetsign, marking where the gunfight took place, says "Nobody Was Faster On The Draw". Beauregard boards his train to Europe and a quiet retirement while Nobody resumes his own life of adventure and dangers.