The man with no name: the reinvention of a genre

A shabby hat, an immortal poncho, an eternal cigar, and a penetrating gaze are some of the hallmarks of this mysterious character known as “the man with no name.” A man who forever changed the image of the hero in the Wild West, a character that came to life from the hand of Clint Eastwood.

We met this archetype in For a bunch of dollars like Joe who, in slang American, it can be used to refer to someone as “boy”, “boy”. In The dead had a price, He is known by the nickname “one-armed” and, finally, in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, like “blond.” His name, like his past, is an absolute mystery.

His image is associated with a genre that did not last too long, but left an important mark on the history of cinema. We talk about spaghetti western and one of the most important revolutions of the genre: the birth of the man without a name.

The spaghetti western

He western American had insisted on presenting us heroes whose values ​​contrasted with the territories through which they moved.; territories plagued by Indians, bandits and lawless cities.

In Europe, the genre was exciting; In such an old continent where there was nothing left to discover, coming across distant and unexplored territories was fascinating.

In a magazine article Open Area from the Complutense University of Madrid, the mythologized idea of ​​stereotypes and how gender captivated Europe is addressed. Following in the medieval wake, the western It captured the archetype of the hero, drawing a firm line that distinguished between good and bad.

In Europe, we could no longer believe in fairies or mystical beings, but we could believe in distant cultures, in wild “red-skinned” men. European filmmakers adopted the most American genre that existed. The Germans were the first to try it and, little by little, the wave of western European would devastate the rest of the continent.

Between the 60s and 70s, countless productions began to occur in which Different European countries participated, among which Spain and Italy stand out. Spain, due to its special geographywas the ideal place to recreate the arid North American landscapes.

These productions did not usually have much budget and generated rejection from critics; For this reason, they began to call the genus spaghetti western, in a clearly derogatory way. However, There was a man who managed to revalue the genre, that man was Sergio Leone.

His mark is fundamental and has served as an inspiration to filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese and even George Lucas. But recognition did not always accompany Leone and, especially in the United States, the vindication of his cinema would come late.

Leone reinvented a genre and gave the opportunity to Clint Eastwood, who at that time was almost unknown, to embody one of the most emblematic characters in cinema: the man with no name. He broke the hero archetype western American to give us a character of dubious morality, mysterious and who not only shoots Indians, but anyone who gets in his way.

The man with no name: breaking the dichotomy between good and evil

In the medieval tradition, the hero is presented from his origins and his values ​​are praised.. This imprint has survived in our culture, it is something that we usually see in comic book superheroes.

We know everything about the hero and, of course, he embodies a morality rooted in the society in which he lives. He serves to show us honor and nobility and takes it to the extreme, to perfection.

The idea of ​​the hero is deeply linked to the moment in which it is conceived. Thus, in the western, the pride of its history, of the conquest of the West and of the values ​​of civilization are very present. But that is not the case in spaghetti western from Leone.

In the films that make up the famous dollar trilogy, Clint Eastwood gave life to the man with no name, a character that blurred values ​​and transformed the genre.

We could classify the man with no name more as an antihero than as a hero. We don’t know anything about his past, he is driven by money and has absolute coldness. His appearance and clothing invite us to intuit that he has known various cultures and his origin is uncertain..

Silences take over Leone’s cinema and become a hallmark of its protagonist. The characters are not flat, we know a lot about them, a good example would be Tuco in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly or the dark plot between Indio and Colonel Mortimer in The dead had a price.

The man with no name contrasts with the rest of the characters whose interests, motivations and past we do know.. Is good or bad? Is he a hero or a villain?

The dichotomy is broken, it merges into the nameless man to present us with a character who is in the middle of that line. It seems that his only motivation is money and he does not hesitate to use violence in any situation. However, we cannot say that it is entirely bad either.

His dirty appearance, his frown and his cold appearance contribute to creating that atmosphere of being in front of a disturbing and totally unpredictable man.. An archetype that is repeated throughout the trilogy and that can be versioned, modified, reused and transferred to other settings. This is how we saw it in the film The pale riderdirected and starring Eastwood, in which the protagonist is also an outlaw who moves between good and evil and is known as “the preacher.”

Sergio Leone did not want to portray noble and kind characters, but violence and hopelessness take over his films.. In inhospitable places, survival and personal interests come first. The nameless man does not act in defense of others, he shows indifference to injustice and will not save anyone if he cannot benefit from it.

Cinema as part of our culture

That coldness we are talking about is framed by a violent, hostile and, of course, not at all happy world.. To achieve that atmosphere, Leone presented dirty characters, dusty and worn clothes, and disturbing and wrinkled faces. In this way, he managed to provide greater realism that contrasts enormously with the pristine image of the characters in the western North American.

The nameless man’s face is perfectly recognizable, but Leone was in charge of meticulously portraying all his characters, even those who only appear for a few minutes on stage.. In fact, it was quite criticized for showing high levels of ugliness. An ugliness that permeates the environment, that frames atypical faces, worn by time and waiting for death.

Close-ups of hands, feet, faces and looks that are eternal; Infinite silences and unmistakable music are some of the hallmarks of his films. A cinema in which good and evil are relative and that has been honored on countless occasions.

The genre drew countless people to movie theaters and its success led to an overexploitation that would make it fall under its own weight.

Part of the magic of these films lies in their soundtrack, composed by Ennio Morricone, author of many of the most unforgettable film soundtracks. At 90 years old he is still active, although this year will be his last tour.

Leone and Morricone formed an unmistakable tandem and had a premise: the music was written first, that is, before the scene was shot. Thus, an exceptional symbiosis is achieved that goes beyond the screen.

Stanley Kubrick himself admired Leone’s work Once upon a time in the West and he applied the same technique as the Italian to his film Barry Lyndon.

The mark remains indelible to such an extent that, last year, the documentary Unearthing Sad Hillwhich was nominated for the Goya and in which we were introduced to the homonymous association in charge of recovering the mythical cemetery of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in the province of Burgos. And it is that Cinema is also art, culture and, of course, heritage; Therefore, we must contribute to its memory, so that it does not fall into oblivion.

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