(Not a troll)
Sorry to lower the tone, but I'm wondering, is Coburn's character supposed to be AC/DC? In the scenes in the car with the girl, it seems like she is "involved" with both of them, but I'm wondering if John actually loves ?Sean as well, even if he hasn't indulged it. I've heard it referred to as a "menage a trois" elsewhere.
(This sounds a bit far fetched, but compare with "The Wild Bunch" - Peckinpah said that the two main characters should be a bit gay!)
Of course, they loved each other and had a threesome. I think Leone was trying to establish just how close these two guys were. Close enough to share a women and certainly to never let a women come between them. There is a sort of perceived "gayness" to that kind of relationship, but it isn't necessarily the sexual kind. They were both hot for the girl, not for each other. Happens all through history. The point is that he killed something he loved... along with his innocence.
"What rotten sins I've got working for me. I suppose it's the wages." -Bedazzled (1967)
That's pretty much how I interpreted it. Even with this though, there is a kind of innocence of youth to it.
shareIt has the air of youthful innocence about it. But a threesome two girls and a guy two guys and a girl does not imply gayness or is an indication of orientation. It is more of an openness.
But anyway the implication is that the three of them were in a bed naked together and for the movie's plot it is an indication of closeness rather than sexual orientation.
Also Sean/John is the same person. Sean is the irish version of John. Sean friend is called Nolan in the script.
"Also Sean/John is the same person."
I appreciate that.
Juan means the same, but I think "Nolan" is also Sean originally.
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It's not "sci-fi", it's SF!
Well there are two ways to look at it.
The three are in a menage a trois, or; the girl is a construct, symbolic of John and Sean's closeness to each other, to their shared ideals and to Ireland.
I like the second onc because it removes the idea of jealousy over a woman being the cause of the betrayal. The final shot of Mallory in the last flashback does not suggest that there was jealousy. Mallory seems content in that shot. Plus it's rather cliched and not really that interesting to see love rivals chucking their ideals away like that.
The symbolic girl works better for me. I can believe Mallory's guilt and need for redemption better if it was for purely idealistic reasons that he gunned down his closest friend.