Spaghetti western
Spaghetti Westerns, also known as Italian Westerns, are a subgenre of Western films that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, primarily produced in Italy and Spain. Characterized by lower budgets and unique storytelling, these films often featured American actors in leading roles, with Clint Eastwood being one of the most notable stars. Unlike traditional Hollywood Westerns, which typically portrayed clear-cut battles between good and evil, Spaghetti Westerns introduced morally ambiguous antiheroes whose motivations were often questionable, leading to more complex narratives. This genre was influenced by earlier European depictions of the American frontier and gained popularity through the work of directors like Sergio Leone, whose films such as "A Fistful of Dollars" and "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" became iconic.
Spaghetti Westerns are also recognized for their stylistic innovations, including dramatic close-up shots, intense violence, and memorable music scores composed by Ennio Morricone. While initially very popular, the genre began to wane in the 1970s, evolving to incorporate more comedic elements and light-hearted characters. Despite varying critical reception, Spaghetti Westerns have left a lasting impact on filmmakers and remain influential in cinema today.
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Spaghetti western
Spaghetti Westerns, sometimes referred to Italian Westerns, were a popular subgenre of Western films. The term was first used by a journalist from Spain, Alfonzo Sanchez, to set apart low-budget Western-themed motion pictures that were produced in Europe during the 1960s and 1970s. These movies about the American West were made in places like Italy and Spain by Italian writers, directors, and producers, leading to the use of the word “spaghetti.” However, the leading roles were generally cast to American male actors. Some popular actors who starred in Spaghetti Westerns were Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Terence Hill, and Eli Wallach.
Although film critics did not always think highly of this genre, the films were generally very popular with audiences. In fact, some notable modern filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino, credit spaghetti Westerns with influencing their work. The Westerns did not follow the conventional styles popular with American Westerns of the day. They often included different stylistic and thematic elements, which earned them their legacy.
Background
The dramatic stories of the American frontier of the nineteenth century captivated many European writers and producers for decades. For example, the 1910 opera, La Faniculla del West, by Giacomo Puccini was set in the American West. The opera is considered to be the first example of a spaghetti Western-style production. Since the dawn of filmmaking in the early twentieth century, European filmmakers have made movies about the American West. The first of such movies made in Italy was La Coce del Sangue, also made in 1910. By the 1960s, European-produced Westerns were becoming more popular. Soon, the genre of the spaghetti Western began to delineate itself from the typical Western movie of Hollywood origin.
One of the founding and most influential spaghetti Western filmmakers was Sergio Leone. His father, Vincenzo Leone, was a filmmaker and made the combination Western-vampire film La Vampira Indiana (1913), which starred Leone’s mother, Bice Waleran. Sergio Leone was the director behind a group of three related movies, known as the Dollars Trilogy, which starred American actor Clint Eastwood. The first, A Fistful of Dollars, was released in 1964 and is generally considered the hallmark spaghetti Western. For a Few Dollars More was released in 1965 and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly in 1966. Another influential Sergio Leone film was Once Upon a Time in the West, released in 1968.
Filmmaker Sergio Corbucci was another notable creator in the genre, directing Django in 1966, The Great Silence in 1968, and Navajo Joe in 1966, a trip of films that inspired Tarantino’s Django Unchained in 2012. Director Giulio Petroni was known for his emotionally charged and often violent movies, such as Death Rides a Horse in 1967, and Tepepa in 1968. Tonino Valerii was also a popular spaghetti Western director, famous for Day of Anger (1967) and My Name Is Nobody (1973). Enzo Barboni incorporated comedic moments into his take on the genre with films such as They Call Me Trinity in 1970, and 1971’s Trinity Is Still My Name, 1971 starring Terence Hill. By the 1970s, spaghetti Westerns were becoming less popular with movie-goers and storylines featured less drama and more light-hearted comedy or silly characters.
Overview
Spaghetti Westerns took a classic audience-pleasing genre and incorporated characteristics that developed into a distinct style. They were notoriously low-budget and often included memorable characters that audiences loved to hate. One of the most notable characteristics of the films is that they used antiheroes, or main characters who were not always good or upstanding people. These characters had questionable morals and were often bounty hunters, revenge seeking gunfighters, and bandits. They were the heroes of the story, but they also were equal parts scoundrels as well. The best-known of these was Eastwood’s character The Man with No Name in Leone’s Dollars movies.
Spaghetti Western antiheroes and their storylines often presented a more ambiguous morality than Hollywood productions. Generally, American-style Westerns featured the classic battle of good versus evil. There was a clear hero who always made the right choices and had upright and moral motivation; on the other side was the evil villain, who was unlikable and motivated by all the wrong reasons. Spaghetti Westerns challenged this ideal and made audiences question the values and motives of characters, sometimes even sympathizing with the villains. This blurring of the lines between the hero and villain made for interesting stories that captivated audiences and made for more complex characters.
Spaghetti Western themes were, in general, more cynical and realistic than traditional American Westerns. Instead of idealizing the Old West as a playground for adventure and fortune, the more realistic portrayals of the West showed, or at least hinted at, violence, poverty, corruption, and moral debauchery. Endings, too, were not always neatly tied up plots with the heroes riding off into the sunset.
Although still set in the American West of the 1800s, spaghetti Westerns were different from classic Western films stylistically. The films had more violence, such as bloody gun battles, dynamite explosions, and fist fights. This was acceptable to European filmmakers, but not to American ones under the Motion Picture Production Code that was in effect from 1934 to 1968.
Other features of the films centered on the directing style. Directors often used dramatic close-up shots of the main characters to show their facial expressions. A quick zoom on an actor’s face could express the tension he was feeling, rather than conveying that emotion through extended dialogue. Distinct and non-traditional music were also signatures of spaghetti Westerns. Prolific Italian composer Ennio Morricone created a distinct style of film music that used electric guitar and whistling. The most famous of his scores was for Leone’s The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. The genre’s opening credits were also done differently than standard Westerns, using memorable colorful designs rather than a scroll of actor and film crew names.
Though not itself a spaghetti Western, Quentin Tarantino's 2019 film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which was nominated for ten Oscars including Best Picture, features a former Western star who is skeptical of spaghetti Westerns. The film pays homage to the spaghetti Western as well as the rapidly changing landscape of Hollywood during the sixties and seventies, the time when the genre saw its rise and fall.
Bibliography
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