Film Review: My Name is Nobody (released 1973)

My Name is Nobody 
Released 1973

Directed by Tonino Valerii

(Ryan's Rating: ★★1/2 out of four)

This Spaghetti Western (though filmed in New Mexico and Spain) is really a comedy spoof of the genre's manly image.  In particular the films of Sergio Leone (Dollars Trilogy, Once Upon a Time in the West) the man who basically invented the Spaghetti Western.  

Leone is credited with the story and was a Producer (though uncredited in some prints), fans have long debated how much input he had over the film as his hallmarks are all over the screen.  The two loner gunslingers with a mutual respect who work together, the "Mexican Standoffs", and even a revisit of the shooting off each others hats from For a Few Dollars More.  Also Leone's longtime composer Ennio Morricone provides a wonderfully off kilter score for this film.

Henry Fonda stars as Jack Beauregard a legendary gunfighter who wants to retire and sail across the sea.  Terrence Hill has more screen time but less lines as the title character Nobody.  The simple yet convoluted plot is really just an excuse to hang set pieces on, the basic story involves a gang of men trying to kill Beauregard as he is moving across the state to make his steamboat trip.  Nobody is a young fan of Beauregard and follows him along in an effort to convince Beauregard to go down in the history books by taking on the hundred and fifty men single handed.  There is also the business man who has a mineral mine that he is passing off as a gold mine...but that is confusing even when seeing the whole movie (this may have made more sense in the longer Italian version).

Since this is a Western spoof there is a running gag of Nobody never shooting anyone despite his ability with a gun.  He prefers to shoot glasses out of people's hands, or hit them with oversized circus props.  There are also joking references to Western lore, the gang is named "The Wild Bunch" and walking through a graveyard they find a tombstone for Sam Peckinpah.  Nobody's name also alludes to Sergio Leone's "Man with No Name" Trilogy starring Clint Eastwood.

This film is designed for lovers of Sergio Leone and film buffs, it will probably leave casual viewers cold.  It is overlong and can be slow moving, also while Hill gives a great performance sometimes his zany antics drag.  The shootout in the barbershop, and the bar sequence are wonderful Leone stylings.  Yet many of the tension building moments end in a comedic chuckle as opposed to the expected gunfights.  Even the climactic showdown with the Wild Bunch is more exciting for its widescreen beauty and staging than its action quotient.

The retiring gunfighter unable to escape their past became a common theme as the Western Genre dwindled in popularity in the 1960s (a trend that sadly continues into the present day).  Actors associated with playing cowboys were given valedictory swan songs, John Wayne's The Shootist, Randolph Scott's Ride the High Country (also one of the last for Joel McCrea), and Clint Eastwood's final Western Unforgiven to name a few.

Following that retiring theme this film would prove to be Fonda's final feature in the Western genre (discounting his cameo in son Peter's Wanda Nevada), it is a fitting cap to a career that includes such classics as My Darling Clementine (as Wyatt Earp), The Ox Bow Incident, and Once Upon a Time in the West (excellent in a rare villainous role) and that alone makes the film significant.

I have been wanting to see this movie for a number of years as a fan of Sergio Leone it adds to his all too brief film output.  So I was very happy to see it streaming as part of Amazon Prime.  I went in expecting a traditional western so I had to adjust my expectations as the film played on.  If you go in expecting a spoof instead of A Fistful of Dollars you'll be good.  Happy trails readers.