Harmonica`s scar

[nighteagle]

Did you notice that Harmonica has a scar on his face when he meets Jill in the farm (before they go to the well)?
Stefanelli told me: after Harmonica "manipulated" the thick chinese spy in the chinese laundry (laundry press), Leone shot a sequence where Frank and his men get Bronson, beat him up, put his face through the iron -fenced foot board of a bed, so that Bronson´s face sticks out through the iron bars, and repeatedly beat on his face. He is then released, but his face shows the signs of punching. Leone did not
include this scene in the final version, but  Bronson kept the scar in the following scenes, obviously.

[Halis]

In Professor Christopher Frayling's book on Spaghetti Westerns, this missing scene is detailed, along with all the other OUATITW cuts.
What is interesting is that Leone decided to cut this scene whilst he was still shooting and tranferred some of the dialogue from this scene into a different scene that actually does appear in the movie. Consequently, if they ever found the rushes, it would be impossible to restore this scene without it making nonsense of the plot.

[shorty larsen]

It thing Leone was wright in not including this scene. It would have shown us an Harmonica not so "invincible" or "untouchable".

I know that Harmonica was shot in the very first scene of the movie. But to be shot is not the same thing that to be beated.

I can stand a scene in wich Harmonica is shot in a duel, even if he have 3 rivals in front of him. But I'm not prepared to see Harmonica humillated by three guys beating him, if you know what I mean.

[Hippieoddball1]

Yeah but clint is beaten up badly in both afod and fafdm and then comes back and kills them all at the end. It shows him as invincible and strong and that he has the last laugh, and no matter what they do to him he's still quicker on the draw and more dangerous.
I actually thought the scene was cut because of time because surely Leone would have gone and reshot the scene without the bruises rather than having a huge blip in continuity. I think theres something in 'Something to do with death' about it being cut from the film because of time. Because after all Paramount wanted a short western and leone came back with over 3 hours. I could be wrong though.

[shorty larsen]

I think Clint has not the same image than Bronson.

Clint's character is often very amusing, he has this funny side who makes that we can't take him too seriously.

Instead, Bronson's character is really "untouchable". He has only one thing in mind: REVENGE. There's no humour in Bronson's character, even if he's ironic sometime. Not only that, I also think that Bronson's character has a "tragic" side (in the sense of greek tragedy) which is not present in Eastwood.

So I don't mind to see Clint beated, but I couldn't stand to see Harmonica beated.

I think it's not fair to make a comparison between Clint's character and Bronson's one

[nighteagle]

Hippieoddball is right. Benito Stefanelli told me once that the
Bronson beating - up scene was cut because of time overlength of the movie

[Hippieoddball1]

Cheers mate.

[Halis]

Nighteagle, I believe that Stefanelli is wrong. According to Prof Frayling's Spaghetti western book, Leone decided to cut that scene whilst filming, and took some of the dialogue from it to insert into other scenes that he was currently writing.
The beating scene could not be restored to the movie because then you would have duplicated dialogue.

[nighteagle]

Thanks Halis,
maybe Benito was not remembering too well, after 30 years.
When I  interviewed Stefanelli  (see my latest topic post) I also noticed that he had some
uncertainties in remembering the cast of some films for example, but that´s understandable, as he made so many movies.
Anyway, Frayling may be correct in such a case.
Saludos, amigo!

[Halis]

Mr Stefanelli has been in so many films over such a long period, that it is not surprising that he may have mis-remembered what happened, or indeed heard something on set that wasn't accurate. And as a stuntman/actor, I bet he often made movies back to back or simultaneously, so remembering casts or mixing movies up would be very easy to do.

As to Prof Frayling, one of the good things about his other book, the biography of Sergio Leone, is that where he has received several versions of the same story he does tell all the versions, so that the reader can make up his own mind about who to believe. For instance, there are three different stories as to how the poncho in FOD came about. Although I guess in that instance you are dealing with people's egos in claiming they had a bigger hand in things than was actually the case.

[train man]

It thing Leone was wright in not including this scene. It would have shown us an Harmonica not so "invincible" or "untouchable".

I know that Harmonica was shot in the very first scene of the movie. But to be shot is not the same thing that to be beated.

I can stand a scene in wich Harmonica is shot in a duel, even if he have 3 rivals in front of him. But I'm not prepared to see Harmonica humillated by three guys beating him, if you know what I mean.
[/q easy..... too much knowledge confuses. the scar is easily explainsd consistently as it stands.Jill shot at Harmonica in the dark the bullet creaing his cheek.uote]

[Hey Blondie]

I think he may have cut the scene out so there wouldn't be any connections between The Man with No Name and Harmonica.

Remember that the role of Harmonica was originally written with Eastwood in mind. Whatever were the original plans for the film is unknown to me but since Harmonica already is Eastwood-ish and since OUATITW is like an epic version of the Dollar Trilogy I think Leone didn't want to make more connections.  

[Jupa]

It thing Leone was wright in not including this scene. It would have shown us an Harmonica not so "invincible" or "untouchable".

I know that Harmonica was shot in the very first scene of the movie. But to be shot is not the same thing that to be beated.

I can stand a scene in wich Harmonica is shot in a duel, even if he have 3 rivals in front of him. But I'm not prepared to see Harmonica humillated by three guys beating him, if you know what I mean.

My thoughts exactly.I've also always been of the opinion that the beat-up scene would have ruined Bronson's character in part,because Harmonica would have appeared humiliated and "not so tough" after that.

[Jupa]

I think Clint has not the same image than Bronson.

Clint's character is often very amusing, he has this funny side who makes that we can't take him too seriously.

Instead, Bronson's character is really "untouchable". He has only one thing in mind: REVENGE. There's no humour in Bronson's character, even if he's ironic sometime. Not only that, I also think that Bronson's character has a "tragic" side (in the sense of greek tragedy) which is not present in Eastwood.

So I don't mind to see Clint beated, but I couldn't stand to see Harmonica beated.

I think it's not fair to make a comparison between Clint's character and Bronson's one

Exactly.

Untouchable.I couldn't find a better word for it.Bronson's character has a sort of divine and mythical feel to it.Even though he's being ironic at times,on the whole he is quite serious and hungry for revenge.You just couldn't imagine Harmonica being beaten like a dog.

[shorty larsen]

Yeah, hard to imagine.

And unacceptable to me.

It's true that it would give a more "human", "mortal" side of Bronson's character, but it's not the way I like to see it.

And I think Leone had his mind clear about that too.

That's why he decided not to have the scene on the movie.