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6
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5 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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Guest
Review by Troy
Howarth |
An
aging gunslinger (Henry Fonda) is looking to retire,
but a young man (Terence Hill) who idolizes him
isn't making it easy...
Based
on an idea by producer Sergio Leone, My
Name is Nobody is a genteel addition to
the Spaghetti Western canon. In common with Leone's
grittier directorial works, the film attempts
to reckon with the romanticized portrait of the
west by deflating conventional clichés
and stereotypes. Ultimately, director Tonino Valerii
and screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi have too much
fun yukking it up to really succeed on that front,
but the film still has a lot to admire.
Henry
Fonda —
in his second collaboration with Leone, following
the extraordinary Once
Upon a Time in the West (1968) —
excels as the easygoing gunslinger Jack Beauregard.
Though older and plagued by worsening eye sight,
he's still as much of a crack shot as ever, and
the iconic American actor anchors the film in
reality. Fonda, who had been Leone's original
choice to star in A
Fistful of Dollars (1964), approaches the
film with a nice mixture of irony and sincerity,
thus elevating it to a different tier than the
typical comedic SW, typified by the Trinity series.
The star of the Trinity films, Terence Hill, is
less satisfactory. His mugging grows tiresome
by the midpoint, though he does share a few nice
moments with Fonda along the way. The supporting
cast includes some familiar faces from Leone's
previous films, including Mario Brega (a Leone
mainstay from Fistful
until Once Upon a Time in
America) and Antoine St. John (Duck
You Sucker, also recognizable from Eurohorrors
such as The
Killer Must Kill Again and The
Beyond), as well as a few American character
actors with western associations, including Geoffrey
Lewis (Salem's Lot,
High Plains Drifter),
R.G. Armstrong (Pat Garrett
and Billy the Kid) and Leo Gordon (The
Haunted Palace, The
Intruder). Apart from Fonda, the remainder
of the cast is dubbed by other actors.
The
technical credits read like a typical Leone-directed
picture: Ennio Morricone provides the quirky music
score (some will no doubt find it irritating,
but I loved it), Nino Baragli does the editing,
and cinematographer Giuseppe Ruzzolini had just
photographed the underrated Duck
You Sucker for the director. Director Valerii,
who also helmed the interesting giallo My
Dear Killer (1971), does a decent job with
the material and shows a tremendous visual flair
much like Leone himself. However, his handling
of the humorous aspects tends to be a little too
heavy, with some embarrassing fast-motion photography
sticking out like a sore thumb. If the film has
a major flaw it's that it's too goodnatured —
it's difficult to fear for the characters, even
if they are likable, when it's so apparent that
this is one Spaghetti Western where violence and
greed aren't the dominating principles.
Though
imperfect, My Name is Nobody
is still worth a view for Spaghetti Western, Fonda
and Leone buffs. At the very least, it's better
crafted and more entertaining than some of the
other SWs that have been released to DVD in recent
years.
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Image's release of My Name
is Nobody represents the film's DVD debut
in the U.S. The 2.35/16x9 image looks nice overall,
though there are a handful of washed out shots
and an irritating "shimmering" effect is noticeable
in the background of some scenes. Nonetheless,
the framing does justice to Valerii's skillful
use of the Panavision frame and gives the film
an impressive sense of scope. The mono soundtrack,
dubbed in English, is clear and potent. Morricone's
score comes through very well and the limitations
are a result of the post-synching rather than
the authoring. Extras are nonexistent, which is
a shame, but at least the film is finally available
on DVD.
7/03/05
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