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To this present day, Clint Eastwood’s most recognizable position is arguably the Man with No Identify from the “{Dollars}” trilogy. That exact same trilogy helped bolster the then-burgeoning revisionist motion that will quickly make the extra simplistic Westerns of the John Wayne period out of date. It is ironic, then, that Eastwood’s anonymous anti-hero was initially presupposed to be named after one of many Duke’s most essential characters: Henry, the “Ringo Child” from “Stagecoach.”
Clint Eastwood and John Wayne’s feud is well-established at this level. The 2 display legends merely got here from totally different generations with very totally different concepts of what constituted a hero and the way Westerns ought to evolve (or, within the Duke’s case, keep precisely the identical). Wayne by no means held again when criticizing the brand new crop of Western filmmakers, reserving particular ire for Sam Peckinpah and his violent 1968 effort “The Wild Bunch.” He additionally despatched a letter to Eastwood decrying the actor’s 1973 movie “Excessive Plains Drifter.” For higher or worse, the Duke merely could not abide the brand new guard’s extra cynical view of the Outdated West.
It is not likely shocking contemplating the person got here to prominence within the Nineteen Forties following his breakthrough position in John Ford’s seminal 1939 Western “Stagecoach.” Taking part in outlaw Henry the “Ringo Child” not solely made Wayne a star, it helped restore Westerns to prominence and re-establish the gunslinger as a preferred heroic archetype. A lot of that legacy was undermined by 1964’s “A Fistful of {Dollars}.” Eastwood’s taciturn, typically brutal Man with No Identify was the other of Wayne’s extra clearly good-hearted heroes. Which is why it is most likely for the very best he wasn’t named after the position that made Wayne a star.
The Man with No Identify was nearly the Man with A Very Recognizable Identify
Patrick McGilligan’s “Clint: The Life and Legend,” discusses how The Man with No Identify — the position that helped shift Westerns away from the Black Hat vs. White Hat simplicity of the John Wayne period — was initially named Ringo after Wayne’s legendary breakthrough efficiency.
Alongside Sergio Leone, Duccio Tessari was certainly one of a number of scenarists credited with writing the unique “A Fistful of {Dollars}” script. In McGilligan’s ebook it is claimed that in an early draft, Tessari dubbed Eastwood’s character “Ringo” as an “homage to John Wayne’s character in John Ford’s ‘Stagecoach.'” In line with McGilligan, it was solely after Leone insisted that the character stay anonymous that this unique moniker was scrapped. “Not a reputation,” Leone is quoted as saying. “Not a previous, not a future, solely the current.”
In the meantime, Eastwood fought to make The Man with No Identify much more of a thriller, leading to a protagonist in contrast to any that had come earlier than. As such, naming Eastwood’s character after a legendary determine in Western movie historical past may have been seen much less as an homage and extra of a subversion. That is nearly definitely how Wayne would have taken it. The demonstrably reactionary star by no means took kindly to the deconstruction of the parable of the Outdated West anyway. Seeing a personality named after his breakthrough position killing indiscriminately would have ensured the Wayne/Eastwood rivalry flared up a lot earlier.
