Spaghetti Western

Spaghetti Westerns is a nickname for a broad sub-genre of Western film that emerged in the mid-1960s, so named because most of them were produced by Italian studios. Originally they had in common the Italian language, low budgets, and a recognizable highly fluid, violent, minimalist cinematography that eschewed (some said "demythologized") many of the conventions of earlier Westerns - partly intentionally, partly as a result of the work being done in a different cultural background and with limited funds. The term was originally used disparagingly, but by the 1980s many of these films came to be held in high regard.

Related Topics:
Western film - 1960s - Italian studios

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The best-known and perhaps archetypal spaghetti Westerns were the so-called Man With No Name trilogy (or Dollar trilogy) directed by Sergio Leone, starring American actor Clint Eastwood and with musical scores composed by Ennio Morricone (all of whom are now synonymous with the genre): A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). The last is one of the most famed Westerns of all time (although, atypically for the genre, it had a relatively high budget in excess of 1 million USD).

Related Topics:
Sergio Leone - Clint Eastwood - Ennio Morricone - A Fistful of Dollars - For a Few Dollars More - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

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Many of the films were shot in the Spanish desert region of Almería, which greatly resembles the landscape of California. (A few were shot in Sardinia.) Because of the desert setting and the readily available southern Spanish extras, a usual theme in Spaghetti Westerns is the Mexican Revolution, Mexican bandits and the border zone between Mexico and the USA.

Related Topics:
Desert - Almería - California - Sardinia - Mexican Revolution - Mexico - USA

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