My Name is Nobody
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| 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 Leone, Fulvio Morsella and Ernesto Gastaldi. The cast includes Terence Hill, Henry Fonda, and Jean Martin. While Leone's only official involvement was as 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 the twist of being played as 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, filmed in New Mexico: Mogollon, Acoma Pueblo, Gallup; Colorado, Louisiana: New Orleans and in Spain. 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 stolen train. To the audience, the answer is obvious: Nobody is driving it.
The film was made by Sergio Leone and his team in response to the spaghetti Western becoming almost a parody of itself. They decided that if anyone was going to make the ultimate "joke" version of the genre, they should be the ones. They cast Terrence Hill specifically because he'd been in so many of the overdone, similarly-named productions, and become a kind of icon of the genre, and had unfilmed comedic capabilities. Inside jokes in the film include invocations of director Sam Peckinpah: his name on a tombstone, the villains being known as "the Wild Bunch", and use of the duster coats which (though Leone introduced them in Westerns) Peckinpah vigorously exposed on screen.
R.G. Armstrong (erroneously credited with middle initial "K"), Geoffrey Lewis, and Steve Kanaly also appear in the film, which was shot in New Mexico, New Orleans, and Leone's favorite Spanish locales in Almeria. This is the second time Fonda worked with Leone, the former being Fonda's first turn as a villain, in the classic Once Upon a Time in the West. Noted French actor Jean Martin plays the film's main antagonist.
Leone directed several scenes of the film, including the opening scene and the final showdown with the Wild Bunch, but Tonino Valerii was the overall director. After the film's release, the film was identified and promoted as a Sergio Leone film, much to Valerii's frustration.
The musical score is by longtime Leone collaborator Ennio Morricone, with its whimsical main theme presaging many of his later non-Western scores. His adaptation of Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" for the Wild Bunch's theme is typical of the movie's sense of humor.
Nobody's the Greatest was a loose sequel.
[edit] Plot
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 boat to Europe and a quiet retirement while Nobody resumes his own life of adventure and dangers.
[edit] References
- ^ Frayling, Christopher. Sergio Leone: Something to Do With Death , Faber & Faber, 2000. ISBN 0571164382
[edit] External links
TERENCE HILL official international website
|
||||||||
