Yeah, Carson told Blondie where the gold was buried, then Blondie lied to Tuco. My point is that the nature of the lie might have still revealed the location of the gold if Tuco had thought about it a bit.
Except I don’t remember seeing a body in that grave, only gold. If Carson just picked an existing “unknown” grave, what did he do with the body after he buried the gold there?
Some guys actually did it for the 50th anniversary of the film, recreating the final scene too:
Longer short documentary:
Just the recreation of the final shooting: The more formal celebration, with a better recreation, from the town's people:
The key words there are “if Tuco thought about it.” Heck, Tuco couldn’t figure out that Blondie had unloaded his gun even though he’s supposed to be a professional gunman.
The crate with the gold was buried only a few inches deep. The body could have been below it.
But the real reason the grave is marked “Unknown” is to provide the twist and added suspense at the end. There’s not a lot of point trying to figure out why Carson did it beyond that.
I guess growing up in West Texas and later living in Albuquerque, I was more exposed to the information.
In either case, good thing he had an actual name for the adjacent grave, or things would have gotten problematic if there had subsequently been a few dozen “Unknown” burials in the vicinity. 
In a similar vein I believed the most important battle to be in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where the 1st Arkansas Cavalry, CSA fought the 1st Arkansas Cavalry, USA.
There is a reference in the link I posted above that the CSA wanted to capture California gold fields to finance The Cause. Good luck with that, guys.
Every time I see this movie on TV I try to give it a watch. It seems the audio and video are always a tiny bit out of synch. Every single time. What’s up with that?
Everyone besides the 3 main characters had their voiced dubbed in, and all the shooting sound effects were done in post as well.
Blondie didn’t actually lie…
And that’s only because Tuco kept harping on it – “The name! Gimme the NAME!” “Sad Hill! Now tell me the name!” – no doubt because Leone wanted the audience to focus on the name, as well. So Blondie gave Tuco the name.
I thought the more glaringly obvious part was when Blondie spent barely any energy ‘writing’ the real name of the grave on the rock. I mean, I know that gets glossed over when actors are typing on a computer or writing in a journal, but the cameras didn’t even seem to try to cut away to gloss over the fact that Blondie wasn’t actually writing anything. To me, that said “Unmarked Grave” so when “Unknown” soldier was the answer it was an “Oh, of course!” moment.
That was Stanton. Carson & crew dumped him on top off Arch and added the name – most people are assuming it was a surname. :eek:
Then he renamed the original grave “Unknown” because “Goldy Real” would have invited too much trouble.
–G!
With the darkness and the anguish of a Goya or Van Cleef
He rescued truth from beauty and meaning from belief
…–Jackson Browne
…Sergio Leone
…The Naked Ride Home
Going from memory, I thought even Tuco was dubbed. Maybe it’s only in certain places, or I’ve just conflated things.
While on my father’s side, a direct ancestor was a Yankee who fought at Gettysburg with a New York regiment, my mother’s family was from Arkansas. A direct ancestor and some siblings and/or cousins all joined the Confederate army, only to desert one by one throughout 1863.
I think Eli Wallach could handle English just fine.
All of the voices were dubbed. However the three leads spoke English while being filmed while the other actors spoke Italian or Spanish and had their voices dubbed in English by other actors.
The Texans made it as far as Picacho Pass, not far from Tucson.
The Lieutenant along with two of his troopers were killed in a 90-minute skirmish plus three more wounded, a 46% casualty rate. Three of the Confederate Arizona Rangers were captured, and (maybe) two wounded. Not exactly Shiloh.
The Confederates had gone some twenty miles further west to Stanwix Station, were turned back there, but knowing the California Column was moving eastward, set up the pickets that Barrett found. After that they retreated back to Texas.