I wonder if John Wayne had anything to do with having him listed as that rather than his name in the movie. :)
shareWe don't know what his name is. He tells Wayne that his name is Asa Watts, but he lies about all kinds of stuff, so we don't know if that is really his name or not.
shareIt was good dramatic for dramatic effect to list him as "Longhair" as the boy tells John Wayne the man who beat him and is following the herd is "The man with long hair who came lookinig for work."
Also Asa Watts (Longhair) was one of the most rotten, despicable villains in the history of cinema. The time was 1972 and having long hair then was making a statement. It said you were antiestablishment, a rebel. It really said something in 1972 unlike just being a fashion choice today.
To be fair, we only hear the name "Asa Watts" once. I don't remember how often Dern's character is called "Long Hair", but it has to be more often than that.
shareIf you read the novel the flick was based on(fairly closely, with a few large divergencies), Long Hair was the only name or handle the fellow had. I don't think he ever got to the point of giving Wil Andersen a name, and the narrative always just referred to him as Long Hair.
My take on it is that he was probably a fugitive, given his thieving murderous ways, and used Asa as his "saddle name". In the Old West, people were too courteous or circumspect to quiz a man about his personal history any more than necessary --if you introduced yourself as Thomas Jefferson or PT Barnum, folks assumed you had your reasons, or that it was none of their business, and called you that (to your face, anyway).
Sparrow 13
the Extremely DeLux One