I watched the movie for the first time tonight. I bought the video a year or so ago because it had both Jack Nicholson and Maria Shneider in it and just never got around to it. After watching I came on here to clear up some answers, I'm no expert at this film but to answer some of your questions:
1) The guerillas never turn up because they were caught by the government. The black guerilla was beaten up, I presume killed by the gov't agent. So the contact ring was broken, no one was there to meet Robinson/Locke
2) Nicholson's character was playing the role of Robertson and was intrigued with his life. He was just doing some 'journalistisc investigation'. He only accepted the money because he was role playing. Had he said or did anything different at that point then I would think his identity would have been blown and he would have been in danger.
3) Not really sure of the bonfire's significance. Maybe someone here could explain? If I were to take a wild stab at it, it might have been done on a crazy whim.
SPOILER!
4) Daisy could be just a code name for a contact, why carry documents with a person's real name. At one point in the movie the girl mentioned, upon going through his book, all of his contacts were women, Daisy being the one with the most appointments. Or, as some posters in other threads have suggested, Daisy was Maria Schneider's character.
Only at the point of dyin'
Once Upon a Time in the West
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Disardor
10 years ago
I disagree with you on #2. I think all indications are that Locke is only going along with Robertson's appointments because he is so passive when left to his own devices; even after he has assumed this new identity and gained the freedom he felt he lacked in his "previous" life, even after he's successfully shed all of his commitments, he's pretty much incapable of doing anything on his own. I don't think there's any indication that he finds the life of a gun-runner intriguing and in fact during one of his earliest conversations with the Girl he's seeking her approval for things he could do with his life (waiter, novelist, etc.). He follows Robertson's appointments despite the fact that they're the appointments of a (dead!) man involved in a dangerous line of work because it's the only "instruction"/"guidance" he receives; as soon as people stop showing up for the meetings, he wants to stop (loses his way because the appointments no longer lead him in a direction that makes sense) but the Girl convinces him to continue making the appointments, and so he does.
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