I got the time line down...

[drinkanddestroy]

The name of a county isn't written on a sign in the town square. The name of the town is

[dave jenkins]

Yeah, but CJ gets props for trying. You won't get him to relinquish his hangings-in-Texas theory until you can pry it from his cold, dead hands!

[dave jenkins]

One thing that tends to support CJ's idea that Sad Hill was near Ft. Smith AK: in the restored footage, after Tuco and Blondie leave the mission (and before they encounter the dusty blue bellies), Tuco is looking at a map and giving hints about where they are to go. He mumbles something about going via the Rio Grande and complaining it's the long way around, also something about crossing Texas; then he flips his map over and says something about taking a more northerly route. That suggests, at least to me, going through Oklahoma, which would, of course, put them on track to hit Ft. Smith (which is right across the river from OK). They get captured and as a result don't go that way, but the plan nonetheless gives us an idea where Tuco thought they were headed.

[stanton]

Btw, what was the forum's take on Eastwood being or being not the same character in the 3 Dollar films?

[cigar joe]

Blondie (he looks in his 30s in 1862), would have been too old to be Joe or Manco Fistfull Of Dollars has to fit between 1895-1898 (fully automatic machine guns and US soldiers still in kersey blue uniforms), while For A Few Dollars More is roughly around 1905 (railroads in both El Paso and Tucumcari). So Joe and Manco could theoretically be the same guy.

I say Joe-Manco is Blondie's Uncle who taught him everything he knows. 

[stanton]

Blondie (he looks in his 30s in 1862), would have been too old to be Joe or Manco. Fistful Of Dollars has to fit between 1895-1898 (fully automatic machine guns and US soldiers still in kersey blue uniforms), while For A Few Dollars More is roughly around 1905 (railroads in both El Paso and Tucumcari). So Joe and Manco could theoretically be the same guy.

But Manco wears this wristband and doesn't use his gun hand, and Joe seems to prefer mules.

Maybe twin brothers? The sons of Blondie? And Harmonica is their uncle? And Nobody their step brother? Who is the father of Noodles and also the father of Roberto Roberti (who exiled to Italy) ...

[dave jenkins]

And lets not forget the twins Mortimer and Sentenza. Of course, if you subscribe to the Terminator Theory, they are merely two examples of the same model, sent back to different points in time.

[Cusser]

Blondie (he looks in his 30s in 1862), would have been too old to be Joe or Manco Fistfull Of Dollars has to fit between 1895-1898 (fully automatic machine guns and US soldiers still in kersey blue uniforms), while For A Few Dollars More is roughly around 1905 (railroads in both El Paso and Tucumcari). So Joe and Manco could theoretically be the same guy.

I say Joe-Manco is Blondie's Uncle who taught him everything he knows. 

Fistfull Of Dollars: there are dates on markers in the cemetery, don't remember what they were.

For A Few Dollars More: earlier than 1905, there's a date on the newspaper where Mortimer sees photo of "Manco", earlier than the dates on the "Fistful" cemetery markers.

[cigar joe]

Fistfull Of Dollars: there are dates on markers in the cemetery, don't remember what they were.

That's just the dates on some graves in view doesn't mean anything, could be that they are just in the older section of the cemetery, no? The fact that Ramone is using a fully automatic machine gun (a prop BTY) and the American soldiers are still in kersey blue uniforms (they didn't change to khaki until 1898) gives me that 1885 (fully auto machineguns) 1898 uniform bracket.

For A Few Dollars More: earlier than 1905, there's a date on the newspaper where Mortimer sees photo of "Manco", earlier than the dates on the "Fistful" cemetery markers.

Watch that scene again, Mortimer is looking through a binder of old newspapers he's in the center of the of that binder when he finds Manco's picture if that is an 1872-3 pub date that means the very end of the binder is the present day. If the El Paso newspaper had one or two sheets that's a lot of days and years to the present by the size of that binder. Like I mentioned there was no railroad through Tucumcari (Rock Island RR) until after 1900. The Southern Pacific went through El Paso in May 19, 1881. Two other clues Mortimer wears a neck tie in a style that was only in fashion after after roughly 1875-1880. Then later when Groggy finally gives Indio a Colt revolver near the end of the flick it has a gutta percha grip which came into use in the mid 1880s also.

Anyway we discussed some of this before here: http://www.fistful-of-leone.com/forums/index.php?topic=5105.15

[stanton]

Actually I do not think that Leone had much interest in historical accuracy in his first 2 Spags. The grave and the paper give dates from the 70s, and that's the classical western time, and I'm sure that is where Leone wanted them to be set. And for uniforms and for any other clothing, he used what he could get or what looked stylish.

I also doubt that the machine gun he used was meant to be accurate. As far as I remember GBU contains also some anachronistical stuff.

Any theories about OuTW? Being in parts a twilight western it should be set later than the 70s.

[Cusser]

None are intended to be 100% historically accurate.

As far as I remember GBU contains also some anachronistical stuff.

Yeah, like dynamite not invented until after the Civil War.

[drinkanddestroy]

Frayling also says that the type of cartridges Blondie is loading into his gun in the hotel room (“two types of spurs”) were not invented yet by the Civil War.

[stanton]

Now, anybody here who thinks that Eastwood is exactly the same guy in the 3 Dollar films, so that GBU is a prequel to the first 2?

[dave jenkins]

Frayling also says that the type of cartridges Blondie is loading into his gun in the hotel room (“two types of spurs”) were not invented yet by the Civil War.

Also, Sentenza Class Terminators were never able to project back as far as the 1860s--the 1870s were their limit.

[dave jenkins]

Any theories about OuTW? Being in parts a twilight western it should be set later than the 70s.

I set it in the year of the film's release. The events occur on an alternate Earth where the American Civil War never happened. Because of this, innovation was stymied (see Victor Davis Hanson's Carnage and Culture), the American West lasted 100 years longer than it did on our Earth, and a transcontinental railroad in the U.S. wasn't developed until 1968.