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But as a youth, long before I knew what a spaghetti western was....I knew how they felt....
American westerns were usually borderline propaganda films...in that they always portraid the traditional good guy vs bad guy roles and relationships...
The good guy was alway clearly defined, and the villian was as well...very story book...
American Westerns seemed to take very little risk in straying from the true tried template of how they portrayed the frontier...
Were as a youth, before I knew what a spaghetti western was...when I watched one it felt different from the get go...
Spaghetti westerns were almost to the Western genre, what Casino and Good fellas did to the 'mobb' movie genre...they brought a certain realistic grittiness to the screen...
I think Spaghetti westerns weren't afraid to show a more realistic gritty side of the cowboys, and frontier life, that American films weren't ready to...
And I also love how they came up with this 'anti-hero' theme...in that sometimes the line between hero and villian could be very thin...as is the case often in real life...
In American films always portrayed the 'cowboy' as being this squeeky clean, well shaven, proper, church going hero....where as the Italians...well...they presented it probably more as it really was...
But they could risk doing that since they really had nothing to loose...and boy did it work...
And it also worked that they found actor Clint Eastwood to bring their characters to life...in a few of those films...
Didn't Clint also have minor roles in the TV show 'Bonanza' or 'Green Acres'?
Seems like every future actor of that day appeared in one of those TV series or the Twilght zone...I guess pickens were slim back then...
Last edited by Time and Space; 12-06-2011 at 10:30 PM..
Spaghetti westerns were completely different from most traditional westerns (mostly for the reasons you mentioned). Once they became popular they changed how many westerns were made. Clint Eastwood had been a costar of a American TV Western called Rawhide. I'm sure the Italian directors considered him a perfect casting choice. It was especially important to have a recognizable name when meeting with American and Worldwide distributors. Clint Eastwood wasn't much of a draw at the time I don't believe, however people did know who he was due to Rawhide, which got the film in U.S. theaters to began with.
Sergio Leone's "spaghetti westerns" were the most famous, but there were plenty of others that laid on the mozzarella. Badly dubbed English, lots of gunshots, weird music - what's not to like?
I'm a big fan of Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef westerns which those two did a few Spaghettis in their day My favorite is probably the top of everyone's list which was/is The Good, The Bad, And the Ugly. I also enjoyed Death Rides a Horse.
The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly: One of the best movies, EVER, hands down!
If one goes on Amazon and searches 'spaghetti westerns', you will find several DVDs offering multiple movies (the first one on the list has 20 movies and costs five dollars). I bought one DVD package a few years ago that had nine such westerns, several with Lee Van Cleef (who made a very good 'bad' guy, even before his most famous 'bad' role). Fun viewing!
I don't know, I thought it was because they were shot in Italy and directed by Italians. They seem to have a certain style (at least the Leone fims) that differentiates them from American westerns at the time - the long shots of the scenery, the close-ups of the characters' eyes, the unique musical scores.
What about the slow motion kill shots of the Sam Peckinpah films such as "The Wild Bunch"?
The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly: One of the best movies, EVER, hands down!
"The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly", was great, and I did really enjoy "The Quick And The Dead", but my all time favortite Clint Eastwood western is "The Outlaw Josey Wales", and my all time favorite non Eastwood western is "The Magnficent Seven", followed closely by Kevin Costners "Wyatt Earp" and Kostner and Robert Duvall in "Open Range". I know that not all of those are "spaghetti" westerns, but I had to include them! "Shane" and "Dances With Wolves" deserve an honorable mention as well.
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My favorite is probably the top of everyone's list which was/is The Good, The Bad, And the Ugly. I also enjoyed Death Rides a Horse.
