TRINITY SERIES

TRINITY SERIES: translation

After Sergio Leone’s Westerns, the most popular spaghetti Westerns were those of the Trinity series, directed by Enzo Barboni and starring Terence Hilland Bud Spencer. These antimyth Westerns were comic send-ups of everything the classic Western represented. The protagonist, Trinity, unlike the traditional cowboy hero and unlike Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name, is a carefree soul whose primary aim in life is to get by with as little work as possible. In one film, he naps while traveling in a travois being pulled by his riderless horse. The gimmick in all his movies was to see how he could top the previous one for traveling without really riding. “He drives his horse like a Lamborghini” (Frayling 1981, 96). With the help of a little camera speed, Trinity has a inhumanly fast draw, which he displays constantly. His brother, Bambino (Spencer), the heavy-set part of the team, tries desperately to be left alone to carry out his own, usually illegal, affairs. But before long, both are involved in saloon brawls worthy of the cartoons, with amazing stunt falls in every which direction.

True to spaghetti Western tradition, the stars, Hill and Spencer, are Italians with Anglicized names. Spencer is Carlo Pedersoli (1929– ) from Naples, and Hill is Mario Girotti (1939– ) from Venice. The two have made 19 films together and both continue making films in Europe and the United States. Hill also brought Lucky Luke, the French cowboy from the comics, to the screen. Spencer is now involved in Italian politics.