The poncho

[Novecento]

very good deducing 

Indeed

[titoli]

very good deducing  

Thanx. It only took me 44 years to figure it out.

[dave jenkins]

  IIRC, there is no similar trick in Yojimbo; the ploy was developed specifically for AFoD.

[pablo113]

Its basically Supermans cape, but way COOLER!

Pablo

[Ramon]

For all of you that say you want a poncho then I can recommend Hollywood Prop

http://hollywoodprop.com/spaghettiponchos.htm

not cheap, but authentic especially after you get the Almeria sun and dust on it.

 

[pablo113]

Got mine, Its awesome! Not cheap though.


Pablo

[pablo113]

Man with No Name= JESUS

If you read Chris Fraylings book!


Pablo

[Rubio]

For all of you that say you want a poncho then I can recommend Hollywood Prop

http://hollywoodprop.com/spaghettiponchos.htm

not cheap, but authentic especially after you get the Almeria sun and dust on it.

 

Ha. I'm surprised it wasn't more than 400 dollars...not that I could afford it myself though, haha.

[titoli]

According to Schickel's Eastwood's bio the poncho was bought in Spain. Eastwood repeatedly claimed he bought it in USA himself. Though I'm rather inclined to disbelieve whatever the actor has to say pertaining to FOD (in the same book he even claims it was he who first suggested the use of extreme closeups to L. ), I wonder whether it was so easy finding a poncho in Spain in the '60's.

[elliot_belt]

Well, I've read somewhere that Leone wanted the Poncho for Clint to make him appear 'bigger' at his shoulders on screen but my first impression of the poncho when I first saw it in GBU was that it is used like a costume. Since I'm based in Germany I never had the chance to see Clint in 'Rawhide'. GBU was the first film of the 'Dollar Trilogy' I saw and I remember that I wondered if wearing a poncho like that in a sun beaten desert would tend to be rather uncomfortable so the man wearing it has to be really cool. In that respect I think Titoli is right pointing out that everything Leone is concerned with is style (Frayling has a lot to say on this subject in his SW book). The costume-like use of the poncho bears a strong resemblance to the Commedia dell'arte where every stereotyped figure is clad in a way to make it recognizable for the audience and we knew that Leone deliberately refered to that.
Titoli's observation regarding the actual use of the poncho to make the Man with no Name a wanderer between worlds is a thought that I share. While Tuco doesn't seem to spend to much thinking on what he wears as long as his revolver is in good shape AE and Blondie imho seem to do. Interestingly most people who've seen the picture once  when asked to remember what AE actually wore they speak of rather dark clothing, even black as fits a villain but he doesn't. His vaquero style hat, high boots, grey jacket and grimed white bandana are stylish too but he's not clad totally black to drive the point home that he is the bad and that is a good thing because otherwise he would have been stereotyped to much.
The only costume standing out is the poncho which kind of singles out the Man with no Name and that was the way I saw it watching GBU for the first time in my childhood.

[cigar joe]

Also, to add my 2 cents, in Fraylings "Once Upon A Time In Italy" on pg. 122 is Carlo Simi's sketch of the Joe Character and its pretty distinct in detail to what he actually wore which almost suggests that it was not just picked up off a shelf but deliberately woven to those particular design specifications.

[elliot_belt]

If that poncho wasn't just picked up off a shelf but "deliberately woven to those particular design specifications" Cigar Joe mentions this would be an impressing discovery. Refering to the bonus material of the GBU Gold Edition I always believed that the clothing was made up from scratch, i.e. Clint buying a nowadays Jeans somewhere (did they exist in that fashion, I mean probably equipped with a zipper in these days? - and, moreover would someone spending so much time in the saddle wear a jeans with the seams on the inside of the leg as they are commonly made today? -  I wouldn't), having only one hat that must not get lost and the sheepskin west I so far undestood was Clint's own, boots, revolver and pistol belt the same as in 'Rawhide'.
I always liked the thought that they were short on anything like that clothing while filming because it makes the result even more impressing. I've seen a documentary about the making of '3:10 to Yuma' and they spoke of hundreds of identical costumes for every charakter but that didn't yield to a better film...

@ Cigar Joe: would it be possible to show a picture of that sketch? The sketching was done before the actual poncho was bought?

[titoli]

 I've seen a documentary about the making of '3:10 to Yuma' and they spoke of hundreds of identical costumes for every charakter but that didn't yield to a better film...

I don't believe it for a moment: this is typical Hollywood hype, like De Niro learning Latin to play a priest . 3:10 wasn't that big production for  a start and it would have been little credible even if it had been a major one. Hundreds of identical costumes for the same character? Give me a break.

[cigar joe]

Its a mirror image sorry, just reverse it. 

[titoli]

If this was done before the shooting, it is odd it bears not the pristine movie title "The Magnificent Stranger".