5. The Man With No Name A Fistful Of Dollars (1964)
A no-brainer, this one: Clint Eastwoods Man With No Name, aka Joe rides into a small town split down the middle by rival criminal factions, and manipulates both sides against one another until all the men of violence except for him are dead, and the civilians made safe. A Fistful Of Dollars is an unspoken, unofficial remake of the Akira Kurosawa ronin flick Yojimbo, starring the legendary Toshiro Mifune which itself heavily drew from Dashiel Hammetts books The Glass Key and Red Harvest. The material would also yield two quality Prohibition-era gangster flicks: Hammetts books were a significant influence on the Coen Brothers peerless Millers Crossing in 1990, starring Gabriel Byrne, while Yojimbo would spawn an official remake in Walter Hills Last Man Standing in 1996, starring Bruce Willis. Well gloss over the cheapass B-movie The Warrior And The Sorceress (1984). Everybody else does. So, given all of this, why have we chosen the spaghetti western? Out of all of the nameless protagonists in these films, Eastwoods laconic Man With No Name is the most iconic, exhibits the most effortless cool, a permanent wry squint on his face throughout. All four are beaten up and/or tortured, but only Eastwood makes it look as though its a part of the plan. And Eastwoods ultrafast gunslinger has more fun taking the enemy apart: he comes at the final gang with a gun and a bag full of dynamite, and takes the Big Bads best shots by sneaking an iron plate underneath his clothes and provokes him into aiming for the heart, before beating him in a contest, rifle versus pistol, to see who can reload and shoot first. Of course, this is an article about cinema: were the remit expanded, wed go for Dashiel Hammetts original protagonist every time. Nameless like his cinematic brethren, The Continental Op is a staple of Hammetts stories: always seven steps ahead of everyone, untouchable and deadly with his own cynical moral code, and plays separate antagonists against one another as a part of his modus operandi.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
