Continued from My Name Is Nobody - PART ONE OF TWO

On the surface this story is simple. What attracted me to My Name Is Nobody were the many levels of symbolism and life lessons spread all over. Take for instance the story of the little bird. I posted that as an article last week for fun. If you read the article, its about a little bird that falls out of a tree. A cow comes up and drops a dung heap on it to keep it warm, then a coyote comes up brushes it off clean and then eats it. I left you readers with pondering the moral to the story for yourself.

In the movie My Name Is Nobody, the main character Nobody tells that story in the middle of the movie. He leaves Jack Beauregard in the same quandary, he says, “My grandpa said you have to figure out the moral for yourself.”

In the final moments of the story Jack Beauregard writes a letter to Nobody telling him he’s figured out the moral to his grandpa’s story of the little bird. His answer seems as relevant now as it could ever be. It’s a lesson I took with me forward through my own life.

Jack explains in his narrative, “It’s the moral to these modern times of yours. Some people you think are out to hurt you may in fact be trying to help you, and some people you think are helping you may actually be out to hurt you.

…But more importantly, when you are up to your nose in shit, keep your mouth shut.”

Now to me this was so profoundly funny all you can do is smile at learning the moral.

I think of my own marriage. All those years I was with someone I thought was on my side, but she had her own agenda. My silly little movie My Name Is Nobody came home to roost once again. It wasn’t the first time I found this movie to have taught me a lesson.

The concept of being nobody fit into my life for a good long time. In my twenties I was a dating machine. I didn’t set out to be a man about town; I became that creature due to the practical and pragmatic ways of Delaware girls. In this town, you had a hard time ferreting out the down-to-earth girls from the selfish girls. I used to joke that it took a credit check with most girls to score a date. I despised the bar scene and when I would find myself out with the guys and woefully bored standing with them near a bar, I’d end up chatting with some very beautiful women. These girls would talk about themselves in ways I knew I would be wasting my time with had I gotten to know them, so when they asked… “Who are you?” I realized I’d be much more memorable as a man without a name. I guarded my name and hardly gave it out. My answer always began with a question mark in my voice…. “Me? I’m nobody.” Then I’d give them a sly look that told them, I was one guy they couldn’t roll over. My sly smile was rarely mistaken for arrogance. I was as I am now, confident and secure in who I am, but I do admit in those days I was indomitable. If for some reason I decided later to give them my name, they valued it all the more.

Strange is it may seem, I gathered my security in watching this character in this movie. He was amazingly smart, but allowed people to think he was a dumb ass when it served his purpose. He knew he was actually a better shooter than his own idol, but he never let it go to his head.

I thought in those very terms. From playing sports, dating, and my involvement with co-workers on the job, I became (LOL) …Nobody. I became a guy that was completely and utterly at home with being seen as Nobody, while knowing he was a somebody.

This smart and gifted gun-slinger played a very serious part to get what he needed. The part of a fool. How else could you be thought of as “Nobody”. One scene stands out which was even used in a phone commercial recently, where Terrance Hill (Nobody) is so fast on the draw he has time to reach across to his adversary pulling out his guns while slapping him in the face too. This scene was a result of him pissing off people with his gift of playing dumb. Playing dumb was his classic ruse.

For instance, Nobody observes a drinking game in a saloon. A simple game. You drink beer in large glasses, working your way down to drinking hard liquor in small glasses. It starts easy with tossing the large beer mugs behind you, then spinning around to shoot them before they hit the ground. It becomes tougher as you graduate to hard liquor in the shot glasses. Miss a glass before it hits the ground and you lose. The odds on the betting change as you go. Of course he acts the dope upon arrival but never misses. People don’t catch on as he at one point he plays drunk, begging “Can’t I do it with milk!” ? This scene is a story in itself like many others during the course of the film.

As funny as this scene was, I read it closely. To find a wise man, you look for a fool. This became a lyric of mine later too.

I hate to admit learning any life’s lessons from a film, let alone such an unusual one, but My Name Is Nobody held great value in lessons for me to employ. I’m not advocating this film as a lesson in life for anyone. It’s highly personal and I’m speaking highly of it as it relates to my own characteristics. I’m not speaking about morals, or standards. I’m explaining who I am. While my core personality is not of this film, I found I related to Nobody on many levels. In such a bleak time the guy made the best of life. He was alone but not lonely. He had a strong sense of morality as he dolled out his own justice where-ever he traveled. Nobody was a traveling philosopher in many ways. For a Western Comedy meant to spoof the genre of Spaghetti Westerns, it was a paradox.

So what happened to Nobody’s hero Jack Beauregard? Well… Nobody made him the legend he wanted him to be. I won’t ruin the story by telling you how. The final five minutes of the story wrapped up loose ends and offered a plethora of advice in the form of clichés. Jack is on his boat to Spain at the docks in New Orleans, Nobody is blissfully happy in his one step ahead of the bad guys mentality. Jack is reading a goodbye letter to Nobody with the now familiar theme music that will either make you smile or cringe depending on how you take to the music of the film in the first place. Mind you, don’t turn your nose up at quickly either if you seek out this movie to watch. The score is by acclaimed composerEnnio Morricone.

I’ve often thought done right, this film should be re-done although it would be very hard to replace Terrance Hill as I think a more modern version would fall short because Hollywood would put a comedian in the role whom wouldn't become the character if for no other reason their own star power would erase the point of being Nobody. It’s a romantic mans man movie that I could care less if anyone likes or enjoys. It's mine and perhaps one day my children will watch it and understand their father better.