Tag: For a Few Dollars More

Colonel Douglas Mortimer headcanons

bleak-nomads:

More thoughts to get down, and thank you to @cudvac and @mcicioni-blog for discussions:

Keep reading

Not a lot of time, but may I add a couple more random thoughts:

1.  Not sure about him considering the priesthood (Catholic or ?Episcopalian ?Methodist??) – he strikes me as a pragmatic man with little interest in things spiritual, and as far as my unreliable memory goes, he never mentions God. Then why is he reading the Bible instead of Homer, Virgil, Shakespeare or Mark Twain in his introductory scene? I can’t figure that out.

2. He occasionally reads books. OK, in the film he only reads the Bible (once) and old newspapers (once, for professional reasons), but if he came from a stock of plantation owners his family home must have had a library, and I am also sure that he went to college.

bleak-nomads:

So does anyone else want to talk about that huge energy shift between Manco and Mortimer from before they were beaten by Indio’s men to after, when they’re hiding out in Agua Caliente tensely waiting to see what might happen?

There’s such a contrast in body language, in the way they avoid each other’s gaze. Something happened, I feel. Any headcanons for what?

Not sure what you mean. Let’s think together. 

Before they were beaten by Indio’s men, there was the lovely moment of annoyed surprise on Manco’s part, and ironic protectiveness on Mortimer’s part (”all alone, with so many problems to solve”), followed by efficient, wordless co-operation in getting out with the loot. Then they get caught and beaten up. Then Nino frees them, and they ironically wave each other (”After you, sir”) out of Indio’s lair. Then it’s the next morning, and they are side by side in Agua Caliente. I don’t read them as avoiding each other’s gaze, just as each of them being totally focused on the very uneven fight to come. The moment when they both jump at the stray cat shows how focused they are. I love the little puff of impatience Mortimer lets out.

What COULD have happened? They clean up each other’s injuries, maybe. And it’s obviously here that Manco gets hold of Mortimer’s watch. Thinking about it, yes, there could be a brief moment of tenderness there, but I can’t for the life of me see any sex happening. Maybe I should get stronger glasses, but I just can’t envisage sexual encounters before a football match, or a mountain climb, or a gunfight.