Why are two Latinos cast as a couple of Germans? Seems like an odd choice.
Though certainly the opposite choice has been made enough times in the history of Hollywood. If the Welsh can be cast as Mexicans (Hopkins and Zeta-Jones in The Mask of Zorro), why not do the opposite?
Well, I think they were Germans from Brazil or another South American country.
shareRaul Julia and Sonia Braga were a hot commodity in Hollywood around the time of filming. Clint loved having them in his film so he cast them. Clint should've rewritten the script to depict them as hispanics rather than German.
shareRaul Julia and Sonia Braga carry off their roles really well, despite being incorrectly 'racially profiled'. Seriously miscast however was Pepe Serna as the senior lieutenant, and its surprising not to hear more about it on these boards. No disrespect to Pepe, he's been great in other roles, but here you can feel him floundering about in the role, almost as if he himself knows he's been miscast but doesn't wanna blow a gig with Eastwood!
The feeling is palpable on screen as he stumbles through lines, constantly being upstaged by Eastwood, Sheen and other supporting actors who were more appropriately cast. And Pepe's oft quoted "its not a job, its a *beep* adventure!" line, while funny, feels like his last desperate grab at a memorable moment, like an actor trying to salvage a bad audition.
Eastwood was already a seasoned director by then, if not the Oscar-winning maestro we know him as now, but he should easily have caught that he'd misfired on casting Serna before cameras even rolled, and made a change. Unfortunate for the actor, as he was simply miscast in the role, like getting a plumber to fix your car then blaming him for doing a poor job....
I didn't realize Sonia Braga was German too. She was great though.
Raul Julia was just ok.
Pepe Serna was terrible.