cinema history class: my name is nobody

Session: Bring Your Own Spaghetti Western, Week 4
Movie: My Name Is Nobody (1973)
Directed by Tonino Valerii

As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL

Plot:
An old gunslinger wants to retire, but a youngster wants him to go out on top. Hilarity ensues.

Administrative Notes:
It has become a class tradition to do a month of Spaghetti Westerns (or Spaghetti Western-related films) every January. It's a change of pace -- a palate-cleanser, as Keith puts it. This year, because several of us have suggested specific SpagWests, Keith decided to let us each pick one for this month's session. This week was Sean's pick.

Reaction:

Director Tonino Valerii did a good job of creating an homage to the best of Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns. It had the breadth and grandeur of those earlier films, and the music of Ennio Morricone. This was just beautiful. It was very much an homage to Leone's films -- which brings it full circle since Leone produced it.

But, while all that's true, it's important to point out that this was also a bit of a parody, with strong comedic elements. And that's the only thing that bothered me about this -- the humor was a little too much at times. There were some points where it descended into Three Stooges territory. Most of the time, the humor wasn't particularly overbearing, but there were moments...

The story itself is a strong one, kind of a variation of the whole "fastest gunman" theme. Arguably combined with a story about an obsessive fan. And Henry Fonda's narration at the end really ties the whole thing together well. 

Ratings:

Me: 9.25
Dave: 9.8
Ethan: 8
Joe: 10
Keith: 9.5
Sean: 4 out of 4