MY NAME IS NOBODY
A JCSuggest for the "Carpenticized" Side of the Web: by John Tate
Does anybody remember the 1973 Spaghetti Western: My Name is Nobody, starring Terrence Hill and Henry Fonda? Possibly not. In any event: In My Name is Nobody, Henry Fonda plays an aging gunfighter, who is seeking a graceful exit from being hounded as a 'Big Name' gunfighter. He's getting along in years and has gotten tired of having to defend himself, just for being a known gun'.
Along comes 'up and coming' gunfighter, "Nobody". "Nobody" is played by British actor, Terrence Hill. Henry Fonda's character is always running into unsolicited trouble, because of his notorious reputation. The young "Nobody" associates himself with Henry Fonda in friendly fashion. Hill is a 'Top Gunfighter' also, but his character gets along much more anonymously. "Nobody" follows Henry Fonda around, and a very humorous and interesting relationship develops. In the ending, Henry Fonda and Terrence Hill stage a 'fake death' for Henry Fonda, designed to get him out of the business. "Nobody", in turn, inherits the mantle. This is an obscure, but GREAT little gem of a movie.
First off. I am a HUGE Terrence Hill fan. He never made the Big Time movie scene, but I think everybody really missed the boat on this guy. Terrence made a couple of other similar, but lesser B Western movies which I still love to watch on VCR: They Call Me Trinity and Trinity Is Still My Name. Theyre kinda campy, low budget movies, but whats enjoyable about the movies is the great character, "Trinity", that Terrence Hill creates. This character was very unique and very entertaining within the context of a Western: His was a very memorable creation in my estimation.
In all the Terrence Hill westerns, Hill plays a gunfighter with almost supernatural reflexes. He is so good at handling a gun and himself (no pun intended) that nobody can touch him. "Nobody" mostly just plays with the bad guys, tormenting them to exasperation. He plays the part with an extremely engaging sense of humor and great charisma. This guy has to be in his 60s by now, but as a young man, this guy had *absolutely tremendous screen presence*. He had the most penetrating blue eyes ever seen on the Big Screen. He should have been a well known film commodity for a lot of years. But alas, his film career has not been overly notable; at least to my knowledge. Great pity.
Anyway, back to present tense. I would LOVE to see a "Nobody" follow-up film directed by John Carpenter. Stage the movie as a Chapter 2 continuation of the original story. This time around, Terrence has become the older gunfighter. Like his previous mentor, he is now trying to make a graceful exit from being a Big Name gunfighter. Bring in somebody new, as the young gun (perhaps Bruce Campbell?).
Any number of funny and interesting plots could be created. Maybe have "Nobody" trying to create the same kind of fake death for himself that he and Henry Fonda had earlier created; but perhaps something goes greatly awry this time around. Have the young gun, Bruce Campbell (or whoever else), screw-up the staged death, and instead of Terrence getting out of the gunfighting business, much to his chagrin, he actually becomes ten times more infamous. Terrence Hill being involved, a humorous plot twist might seem to be in order.
From what I gather, John Carpenter has always wanted to do a Western. He probably wont rest easy until he gets that Western made. This type of Western would seem to provide a rich color palette from which to create a great canvass: A modern day homage (and/or spoof?) and evolution of the now defunct Spaghetti Western. Just for atmosphere and authenticitys sake, even shoot the darn film in Italy. Hey! In the spirit of Spaghetti Westerns get Clint Eastwood to do a cameo.
To see Terrence Hill bring the "Trinity/Nobody" character back to life JUST ONE MORE TIME; and in a JOHN CARPENTER WESTERN: *** WHAT A THRILL THAT WOULD BE!!! *** ADDENDUM (8/17/98): It has been brought to my attention that I have wrongly depicted the actor, Terence Hill, as being British. In point of fact, Terence Hill was actually born in Italy in 1939 (birth name: Mario Girotti). His father was an Italian chemist; his mother was a German citizen. As a small child, Terence and his family survived the Allied bombing raids of Dresden, Germany during World War II.
I was confused with My name is Trinity 
Hahaha
