Wednesday, March 29, 2017

My Name is Nobody (1973): Bullets, Barfights & Buffoonery

My Name is Nobody (1973) - Riding off into the sunset of his life, Jack Beauregard (Henry Fonda) is only looking to retire peacefully from gunfighting. But the old west doesn't forget so easily and tagging along, much to his annoyance at times, is his number one fan, Nobody (Terence Hill).

Seemingly out of nowhere comes this stranger only calling himself Nobody. He has Jack at a disadvantage being he knows all about Jack, but Jack, nor anybody else, knows anything about him. He tells Jack all about his, Jack's, exploits as a gunfighter, how Jack is a legendary gunfighter, but not a LEGEND. In order to do that, Nobody says Jack will have to take on 150 men at once: the Wild Bunch.

The character of Nobody in this movie is about like a 7 year old who suddenly grows up but is still a 7 year old at heart believing in good guys and bad guys and heroes. He likes to be seen, even if some don't share his enthusiasm, and worships the ground Jack walks on, wishing he were walking on that same ground.

Taking Hill's energetic performance from the Trinity films, Fonda's experience from playing characters in westerns many times, and the flavor so traditionally pumped into Italian westerns and the end result is a fantastic story rife with boyhood fantasies of gunslingers. My Name is Nobody turns the traditional western on its ear as a successful comedy, then uprights it again being as good as any western ever made, and yet offering something so unique.

I give it 5 Daggers. Not only is it supremely entertaining, it is also eminently rewatchable.


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