1:24:04
So the coffin maker calls him Joe.
1:24:06
Now, is that his name, or is it
an all-purpose name, like John Doe?
1:24:11
Joe, GI Joe. An American
is called Joe in a Mexican setting.
1:24:17
Is it everyman? No one's quite sure.
1:24:19
It is quite clear, though,
that he did have a name in this film,
1:24:22
and that the United Artists publicists who
turned him into the man with no name
1:24:27
and expunged all references to his name
in the soundtrack, as far as they could,
1:24:33
is an example of a marketing department
inventing the name of the lead character.
1:24:38
Or rather, the no name of the lead
character. Unusual in modern cinema.
1:24:43
The man with no name.
1:24:55
Running gag. The coffin maker's
the only person making money.
1:24:58
Since Eastwood's arrived
there's a high mortality rate.
1:25:02
I'm not sure who'll pay for all
the funerals, there's no one left to pay.
1:25:06
But the coffin maker,
played by this music-hall star,
1:25:09
is enjoying himself hugely with this.
He's going to get a lot of business.
1:25:22
So Piripero has given him
some sticks of dynamite,
1:25:26
and you might expect that
he's going to blow up the cantina,
1:25:30
he's going to blow up the Rojo residence.
1:25:33
He'll use the dynamite for some
tactical or aggressive purpose.
1:25:36
He doesn't do any of those. He uses
the dynamite to give himself presence,
1:25:41
to enhance his charisma
so that as he walks in,
1:25:44
he's going to make one of the
great entrances in Western movies.
1:25:48
By explosion, lots of dust,
the creation of dust in the sequence,
1:25:53
which, according to Leone, was based
on John Ford's My Darling Clementine,
1:25:58
where the shootout takes place in dust.