Spaghetti Western

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Clint Eastwood as the "Man with No Name" in A Fistful of Dollars
Clint Eastwood as the "Man with No Name" in A Fistful of Dollars
Once Upon a Time in the West, in true Sergio Leone style, ends with an extended shootout scene between Harmonica (Charles Bronson) and Frank (Henry Fonda).
Once Upon a Time in the West, in true Sergio Leone style, ends with an extended shootout scene between Harmonica (Charles Bronson) and Frank (Henry Fonda).

Spaghetti Western 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, and 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, particularly because it was hard to ignore the influence they had in redefining the entire idea of a western up to that point.

The best-known and perhaps archetypal spaghetti Westerns were the so-called Man With No Name trilogy (or Dollars Trilogy) directed by Sergio Leone, starring the American then-TV 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. Atypically for the genre, it had a relatively high budget in excess of one million USD.

Many of the films were shot in the Spanish desert region of Almería, which greatly resembles the landscape of the American Southwest. (A few were shot on 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 US.

Spaghetti westerns are also known as "macaroni westerns" in Japan.

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[edit] Other "Food Westerns"

Movie poster for Tampopo
Movie poster for Tampopo

The name led to various other non-US westerns being associated with food and drink.

Sometimes the names chorizo/paella Western are used for similar films financed by Spanish capital, although Leone's earlier films were actually shot in Almería. Publicity for the Japanese comedy film Tampopo coined the phrase "Noodle Western" to describe the parody made about a noodle restaurant. Robert Rodriguez's Westerns have been called "Burrito Westerns." Sometimes Hrafn Gunnlaugsson's Viking movies are called "Cod Westerns". The German Westerns of the 1960s, which were successful in Europe before the Italian Westerns, were made after novels by Karl May and mostly filmed in former Yugoslavia. German Westerns are often called "Kraut Western". The Red Dwarf episode Gunmen Of The Apocalypse has been described as the world's only "Roast Beef Western". There is also the little-known Kebob Western. John Woo's Western movies were described by Roger Ebert as "Dim Sum Western". The "Red Western" or "Ostern" is the Soviet and eastern bloc's take on the genre. (Time magazine dubbed the animated TV series Samurai Jack, which combined elements of — among others — anime and the Sergio Leone films, a "Soba Western.")

An entire sub-genre of westerns produced by the Indian film industry, and especially Bollywood based in Mumbai, is whimsically named "curry Western". Notable as being one of the most successful box-office hits of all time in India is the "curry Western" Sholay.

[edit] Notable works

[edit] Films

Main article: List of spaghetti western films

[edit] Gaming

[edit] Notable personalities

[edit] Directors

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[edit] Composers

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

Weisser, Thomas, Spaghetti Westerns: the Good, the Bad and the Violent - 558 Eurowesterns and Their Personnel, 1961-1977. (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1992)

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