SPAGHETTI WESTERN

'Spaghetti Western' is a nickname for a broad sub-genre of Western film that emerged in the mid-1960s, so named because most 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). Atypically for the genre, it had a relatively high budget in excess of one million USD. His following film after the so-called "trilogy" was ''Once Upon A Time In The West,'' which is often lumped in with the previous three for its extremely similar style and accompanying score by Morricone, only differing itself from the others by the absence of Clint Eastwood in the starring role.
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.

Contents

Other "Food Westerns"

Notable films

Notable personalities

Directors

Actors

Composers

See also

Games

References

External links

Other "Food Westerns"

The name led to various other non-U.S. 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, ''El Mariachi'', ''Desperado'' and ''Once Upon a Time in Mexico'', 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 Yugoslavia are often called "Sauerkraut Westerns". The GDR DEFA Studios made Sauerkraut Westerns in Yugoslavia like their West German counterparts and had a Native American as hero (usually played by Gojko Mitic).
The Red Dwarf episode ''Gunmen of the Apocalypse'' has been described as the world's only "Roast Beef Western", although the British director Shane Meadows' film ''Once Upon a Time in the Midlands'' has been described as a "tinned-spaghetti Western". John Woo's Western movies were described by Roger Ebert as "Dim Sum Western". The Thai film ''Tears of the Black Tiger'' by director Wisit Sasanatieng has been dubbed both a "stir-fry horse opera" and "a Pad Thai Western" by critics. 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.") Monty Python's Flying Circus provided a "cheese Western' parody as a film critic discussed Sam Peckinpah's ''Rogue Cheddar'' film.
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''.

Notable films

Main articles: List of spaghetti western films

★ ''A Fistful of Dollars'' (1964) ★ ''For a Few Dollars More'' (1965) ★ ''The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'' (1966) ★ ''Navajo Joe'' (1966) ★ ''Django'' (1966) ★ ''The Big Gundown'' (1967) ★ ''A Bullet for the General'' (1967) ★ ''Face to Face'' (1967) ★ ''Day of Anger'' (1967) ★ ''Ace High'' (1968) ★ ''Death Rides a Horse'' (1968) ★ ''The Great Silence'' (1968)

★ ''If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death'' (1968) ★ ''The Mercenary'' (1968) ★ ''Once Upon a Time in the West'' (1969) ★ ''The Price of Power'' (1969) ★ ''Sabata'' (1969) ★ ''Compañeros'' (1970) ★ ''A Fistful of Dynamite'' (1971) ★ ''They Call Me Trinity'' (1971) ★ ''Storm Rider'' (1972) ★ ''Trinity Is STILL My Name!'' (1972) ★ ''My Name Is Nobody'' (1974) ★ ''Four of the Apocalypse'' (1975) ★ ''China 9, Liberty 37'' (1978)

Notable personalities

Directors ★ Enzo G. Castellari ★ Sergio Corbucci ★ Sergio Leone ★ Sergio Sollima ★ Tonino Valerii ★ Dario Argento Actors ★ Barbara Bouchet ★ Mario Brega ★ Charles Bronson ★ Claudia Cardinale ★ Lee van Cleef ★ Clint Eastwood ★ Henry Fonda ★ Sancho Gracia

★ Richard Harrison ★ Terence Hill ★ Klaus Kinski ★ Guy Madison ★ Tomas Milian ★ Gordon Mitchell ★ Franco Nero ★ Jack Palance ★ Luigi Pistilli ★ Fernando Sancho ★ Woody Strode ★ Bud Spencer ★ Gian Maria Volonté ★ Eli Wallach ★ Frank Wolff ★ Jack Elam

Composers ★ Luis Enríquez Bacalov ★ Francesco De Masi ★ Ennio Morricone ★ Bruno Nicolai ★ Riz Ortolani ★ Piero Piccioni ★ Armando Trovaioli ★ Piero Umiliani

See also

★ Revisionist Western

★ Zapata Westerns

Games

★ ''Deadlands'', a role playing game sometimes described as "The Spaghetti Western... With Meat!"

★ '', a Spaghetti Western-themed computer game specially based on the Dollars trilogy

★ '', the sequel to ''Desperados''

★ ''Outlaws'', a Spaghetti Western-themed computer game

★ ''Red Dead Revolver'', another Italian Western themed video game

★ ''Bang!'', a non-collectible card game produced in Italy and translated to several languages, has a Spaghetti Western theme to it, even keeping the Italian text along with the translated text in the cards

References

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

External links

★ A Fistful of Westerns

★ The Spaghetti Western Database

★ 10,000 Ways to Die Book about Spaghetti Westerns made between 1963 and 1973, released under a Creative Commons license by its author Alex Cox.