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Fistful of Dollars (1964, It.) (aka
Per un Pugno di Dollari)
In Sergio Leone's
"spaghetti western" remake of Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo
(1961), featuring Clint Eastwood in his first leading role - and
the first film in the so-called "Man With No Name" or
"Dollars" Trilogy:
- the central character - a pancho-wearing, cigarillo-smoking
'Man With No Name' (Clint Eastwood) (aka Joe, the Stranger), whose
aim was to set two feuding crime gangs, the Rojo and the Baxter
clans, against each other
- upon arrival in town, the Stranger's request to the
nearby, elderly local undertaker/coffin-maker Piripero (Joseph Egger):
"Get three coffins ready", as he strolled by the storefront
on a street in the Mexican border town of San Miguel
- the Man With No Name's subdued anger over treatment
of his mule by a group of four gunslingers, who didn't want him in
town, and insulted and reprimanded him: ("Listen, Stranger,
didn't you get the idea? We don't like to see bad boys like you in
town. Go get your mule. You let him get away from you, ha, ha?");
the stranger replied during a tense-standoff when they refused to
apologize, before shooting them down: ("You see, that's what
I wanna talk to you about. He's feelin' real bad....My mule. You
see, he got all riled up when you went and fired those shots at his
feet....You see, I understand you men were just playin' around. But
the mule, he just doesn't get it. Of course, if you were to all apologize
(they laughed at him) - I don't think it's nice, you laughin'. See,
my mule don't like people laughin'. He gets the crazy idea that you're
laughin' at him. Now, if you apologize, like I know you're going
to, I might convince him that you really didn't mean it")
- and shortly after seeking deadly revenge in a shoot-out
that killed all four men, he told the Sheriff John Baxter (Wolfgang
Lukschy): "Well, if you're the Sheriff, you'd better get these
four men in the ground"; and then the Man With No Name revised
his mordant order to the coffin-maker: "My mistake, four coffins"
- the final duel against Ramon Rojo (Gian Maria Volontè),
when the Man With No Name - who was taunting the gunman to aim for
his heart: ("The heart, Ramon. Don't forget the heart. Aim for
the heart or you'll never stop me) - then revealed that he was wearing
a make-shift bullet-proof metal plate under his poncho, and knowing
that Ramon would empty his Winchester rifle of bullets; he then challenged
Ramon to a race to see who could load their weapon the fastest: ("When
a man with a '45 meets a man with a rifle, you said the man with
the pistol's a dead man. Let's see if that's true. Go ahead. Load
up and shoot") - and after loading up more quickly, he shot
Ramon dead before riding away [Note: a similar "bullet-proof"
scene in Back to the Future
Part III (1990) paid homage to this final sequence]
Final Shootout Between Ramon Rojo and The Stranger
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Revelation of Bullet-Proof Metal Plate Under Poncho
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Stare-Off With Ramon Before
He Was Shot Dead
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The Man With No Name: "Get Three Coffins Ready"
Shootout After Confrontation With Four Men Over Scaring
His Mule
"My Mistake, Four Coffins"
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