Amy Papasergio

The Man with No Name

amy PaPasergio

I grew up watching my Granddad’s old western films. Reaching through the wheezing wooden TV cabinet to find Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and John Wayne. Household names that I wished I could defend a town with or follow into the sunset on horseback.

Out of all the cowboys though, there was only ever one for me… The Man with No Name.

Elusive, witty, cool, and one of the only men not dubbed over in these classic spaghetti westerns. Wearing his iconic green poncho, Clint Eastwood’s famous character carried on through three films, entitled the Dollars Trilogy. All three films captured my heart, and surprisingly all three films found a name for the name/less cowboy.

In A Fistful of Dollars (1964), we hear the old undertaker Piripero refer to Eastwood as “Joe.”

Then in For a Few Dollars More (1965), the film introduces him as “Manco,” before finally in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), the bandit Tuco Ramirez calls him “Blondie.”

I thought it ended there, a few nicknames for the character I loved. However, the deeper I delved, the more interesting his origins became. Reading through countless articles I soon discovered that A Fistful of Dollars was an unofficial remake of a 1961 film Yojimbo. Perhaps the character should have been referred to as ‘the man with no name… or originality.’

Sergio Leone and Akira Kurosawa, directors of both films respectively, both capture the tale of a lone rider who must make questionable decisions to defend a town caught between two rival gangs. Kurosawa’s character refers to himself as Kuwabatake Sanjuro, translating to “mulberry field,” as he takes inspiration from a mulberry field nearby. From this, we can assume that Sanjuro is an early example of the “Man with No Name.”

Despite their differing settings in feudal Japan and the wild west, their stories are undeniably the same. In response, Toho (Kurosawa’s studio) sued Leone for this almost scene-byscene remake. I love the now infamous letter Kurosawa wrote, “Signor Leone – I have just had the chance to see your film. It is a very fine film, but it is my film, and you must pay me.”

Eventually Leone and Kurosawa settled it out in court, for 15% of the worldwide receipts of the film and reportedly over $100,000. One thing I know for sure, is despite these new facts coming to life, I will never stop reenacting my favourite scene: “get three coffins ready” and then, four dead bad guys later, “my mistake, four coffins.”

Amy gives this trilogy five out of five coffins.