The movie is revisionist fiction, with several made-up characters interacting with existing ones, thereby changing the course of real-life history. It might also be noted that Leonardo DiCaprio's scruffy, shaggy-haired, mustachioed hippie-villain in this film was very closely modeled on the look that Wanamaker designed for the original actor, Joe Don Baker. These were reflections of Wanamaker's personality, which no doubt were noted by Quentin Tarantino when scripting and directing the Wanamaker portrayal. Plus much of the camera work, angles, sudden zooms and the like were very strongly influenced by TV detective shows of the day. Also, they were both wearing plaid shirts, with was also odd. Presumably Wanamaker rationalized this hatless aspect as depicting haste, yet he forgot about how this might be interpreted by an audience. The opening scenes show two good guys responding to a late-night horse theft and riding off without cowboy hats, making the audience wonder if this was present-day. In the pilot episode of Lancer (1968), a fair amount of this weirdness shows through. Being strongly influenced by his many years playing Shakespeare characters on the British stage, he tended to be overly-theatrical. The portrayal of Sam Wanamaker is of an extremely arty, imaginative man, which is very much like Wanamaker was in real life.
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