First let me thank everyone for sharing thier stories, I have found them all very interesting. I have one of my own, hopefully you will find it interesting as well.
I am 22 years old, so I don't recall much of anything that happened to me before around 1984 or so. Anyway, just saying that I am probably younger than most of the fans here, but still a devoted fan nonetheless.
Anyway, how I first became interested. Once, on a Sunday afternoon when I was around nine or ten years old I was playing around in the house making noise and otherwise frustrating my father. He told me to sit down on the couch and shutup. He stopped on one channel and said I should watch a movie with him that was about to come on.
While the comercials were running he told me about how Grandpa had loved westerns and how he liked them a lot too. He said they were entertaining to watch. I sat there through the story and thought of what I coud have been doing had I stayed in my room. Every other western he had made me watch had seemed really corney to me because the villians always missed and they'd have campy music and unrealistic sets in the films.
What was this film? "The Good the Bad and The Ugly"? "What the heck is this nonsense?" I thought to myself. But, the music seemed kinda cool to me in some odd way. I started to get up and sneak out of the room. My dad told me to sit back down and relax. So I gave in and sat there.
Next thing I knew this unknown guy played by Eastwood was shooting the noose off of Tuco's neck and collecting money again and again. I thought "Wow, that guy is pretty creative with that little scheme." Then I just decided to watch, people were dying and the plot was getting thicker with a promise of buried Gold from the lips of a dying Bill Carson.
I was hooked, I watched the movie all the way through until the end. My dad had long since fallen asleep, as he tends to do on Sunday afternoons, but I still sat there and watched. The awesome three way showdown at the end and the music, oh the music fit perfectly and set the mood all the way through. Eastwood had given that poor confederate soldier a puff on his cigar before the lad died. They had blown the bridge and granted the dying Union Captain his last request. Would Tuco and Blondie turn on each other at the end? I wondered how things would turn out.
I smiled and laughed at the end the way Blondie ended things. I was so impressed, I thought then, and probably still think now that it is the best western I've ever seen.
Then when it was all over, I sat there feeling satisfied that Eastwood had delivered a film that, as another member here put so gracefully, "Hit the spot."
The Television then said to stay tuned to see "For a Few Dollars More." I watched that one too, and ever after I was hooked.
One regret I have is when Unforgiven hit theaters. I begged my dad to let me go with him to see it at the theater, but he was going with some friends for work and did not take me. Another six years went by before I ever actually got to see it. But I had seen almost all of his other westerns by then.
I forgot to mention Dirty Harry, I got into those too. They also played a big part in making me an Eastwood fan. It is sad that so many kids today do not appreciate Eastwood or even know much of his work. I was converted by my Dad, and I now collect the films on DVD. Eastwood is without a doubt my favorite actor now. That just about wraps it up I guess, I've gone on long enough with this "Short" story.
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This would be very interesting. Another Eastwood Western would be welcomed by me any day. The man with no name charcter could be very wiley and crafty as an old man. By this point he most likely would not get caught and beaten up as he did in his younger days. He would know enough about the human psychology to really mess with people and play a bigger chess game with a town than ever before. Should someone find him out, he might still be quick enough on the draw to take a few guys out along the way as well.