Mein Name ist Nobody

Good old movies still manage to surprise me. Even when it comes to my favorite actors. This is where Terence Hill, my favorite of the Hill and Spencer duo, delivered an absolutely beautiful performance. And in a movie that I had never seen before in the 24 years of my life. I’m ashamed, but at the same time, I have to say that I enjoyed the moment as best I could. My Name is Nobody is a beautiful western movie with typical good-hearted – and therefore comedic – roots. Terence Hill plays an incredibly good guy. In turn, Henry Fonda plays a guy who explicitly belongs to a western movie. But this movie’s got Terence Hill and so it all takes on an incredibly beautiful atmosphere, which doesn’t only begin and end with the dialogues, but most importantly and especially with the infinitely long and beautiful glances between Terence and Henry. Only perfect artists can express such beautiful emotions in a movie. It’s not really “in” anymore nowadays, but back in the day, I would have served them golden bananas on a silver platter for these kinds of experiences. It was a beautiful experience and I believe it will be beautiful every time I watch it again. The scene where Terence came to a pubdog-tired, had a beer, then about 4 pints of whiskey and then he was still able to pick up the chick behind the counter, is simply flawless. This is how I would like to feel after downing 4 pints of hard liquor. Well, Terence is a pro. (17.11.2013)

Even a master carpenter can make mistakes. But luckily, when it comes to a director of Leone’s caliber, this still makes for a pretty darn high quality picture (however little he had to do with the end result). The rather shaky result is due to the badly cast and here terribly lackluster Henry Fonda. Clint Eastwood would have been much better in that role. The second and more serious problem is that the movie can’t make its mind up about what genre it wants to fill. We get elements of drama, laid-back popcorn, pure comedy and even parody, but all together this isn’t really very stimulating. Even though the occasional nod (not only) to Sam Peckinpah are priceless. But still, this is a good western that works more on a scene-to-scene basis (and we see a lot of good ones here - the opening sequence is the embodiment of perfection) rather than as a whole. However, I have no objections to make about the camerawork and to Ennio Morricone’s music, even though the quality isn’t quite as high here as in his best compositions. A low four *. ♫ OST score: 4/5 (05.02.2007)