Where do these characters come from?

[FedoraFan112390]

These are five rogues met in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, in a flashback sequence set in Utah in 1912. While their exact outfits are probably original, I can't help but think, on some weird subconcious level, that their general attire and attitude (they seem very, well, rough-hewn, cowboy-esque, cackly) must've been derived from some other sources from that actual time period which exist in our collective cultural subconscious; that they are almost "stock" figures in some way.

The characters names are Fedora, Bully Boy (who is described in the script as a "Bully Bowery Boy), Panama-Hat, Half-Breed and Rough-Rider. Even their monikers speak in a way to some old, turn of the century bad guys from some dime novel, but it's not something I've ever read.

Any help?

 

[Stanley Doble]

They might be a costume designer's idea of 1912 outlaws. You wouldn't have seen a fedora or a white suit, and if you did it wouldn't be white for long. You might have seen a man in dark suit, wing collar and derby hat although it would have been slightly out of place outside town. Other than that typical cowboy work clothes would have been the rule.

No doubt the idea was to create the impression of a motley group from diverse backgrounds who got together for some nefarious purpose.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

The extreme left rear guy should be called "Ëarp Brother."

 

[MikeKardec]

A lot of the time this sort of minor character is created more by the actor who is cast and the wardrobe dept than the writer and director.

The idea is to cast a group who look like they have a story. That goal very successfully achieved here and the director would have been involved in at least approving their photos if not getting a look at each of them in person. I'm going to say that the main guy was cast perhaps not just because he slightly resembles Harrison Ford (you wouldn't ant to get too close) but also because he looks somewhat familiar (ie like other actors you have seen). This is brilliant. He's an immediate icon without being identifiable and you are put in the emotional shoes of the young Indy, the man makes a big impression but is not an out and out caricature and doesn't detract from Ford's "star power" by making a bigger impression.

Wardrobe, probably without being told, would also follow up by creating a backstory for each character so that they seem like individuals who have different, yet subtly familiar, histories. Costumers, make up people, etc are all story tellers within their specialties. The actors would then create a backstory for themselves that worked with the way they look and what their actions are in the scene. More than "telling people what to do" the director's job would be to spot if there was any visible conflict in the way these people looked and what the script had them doing. Usually, a director's job is mostly to make sure everyone is 'making the same movie' and that takes a very discerning eye.

I'm going to guess also that a couple of these dudes were stuntmen (too expensive to hire an actor and a stunt double if the right looking stuntman is available and can act, stunt men are all members of the Screen Actor's Guild), so they probably started assembling the look of the group starting with the main actor or with a specialty stunt man and worked the rest up from there.

It's a beautifully cast group, I remember at the time wanting to know their story and you've just made me realize I'm now more interested in that "story" than I am in the finished film!

PS. I'd call the front three going right to left, The Client, The Treasure Hunter and the Indy Shadow or the Dark version of Indy as a Boy. The others are general Thugs. It's a bit of a psychological model for Indy and his life and slightly more intellectual than the rest of the movie. It's the one place where the morality of what Indy does, stealing artifacts, and taking them out of context, as the trophies of colonial powers, is commented on.

The group and the scene has power because of that too.