Item from The Dollars Trilogy by Sergio Leone / United Artists
The recurring instrument of Tuco's near-executions — the rope around his neck that Blondie shoots through to free him, until the last time when Blondie leaves him standing on a grave marker with his hands tied.
The noose is the visual vocabulary of Tuco's relationship with death and with Blondie. The scheme that opens The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is simple: Blondie turns Tuco in for the reward, then shoots the rope at the last second, and they ride off and split the money. They repeat this across multiple towns. When Blondie abandons Tuco in the desert — taking the horse, leaving him to walk — the noose becomes retroactive: all those times Blondie saved him were transactional, not personal. Tuco doesn't believe this. The film isn't sure either. At the end, Blondie puts Tuco back in a noose — standing on a grave marker, hands tied behind his back, gold already loaded — and rides to a distance. Then he shoots the rope. Once more, and for reasons that are not about money.
Standard frontier hanging rope, coarse hemp, knotted. Usually attached to a tree branch or gallows post. Around Tuco's neck it becomes the film's recurring motif: the moment of maximum vulnerability, the moment where the partnership between Tuco and Blondie is most clearly stated — because if Blondie doesn't shoot it, Tuco dies.
Also known as: The Noose, The Rope