The So-Called “Spaghetti Western” Film

The So-Called “Spaghetti Western” Film

Spaghetti Western, also known as Macaroni or Italian Western, is a vast subgenre of Western films that merged in the mid-1960s. It was during the international box-office success and the awake of Sergio Leone’s film-making style. The American critics used the term Spaghetti Western and also those in other countries as the Italians produced and directed most of these Western. According to Aldo Sambrell, the veteran Spaghetti actor, the “Spaghetti Western” was invented by Alfonso Sanchez, a Spanish journalist. The typical Spaghetti Western team consisted of Italo-Spanish technical staff, an Italian director, and a cast of Italian, Germany, Spanish, and American actors.

The majority of Spaghetti Western filmed between the years 1964 and 1978 were made on small budgets and shot at various locations around Spain and southern Italy and Cinecitta studios. Most of the stories took place in the dry landscapes of Northern Mexico and the American Southwest. So the filming locations which they frequented were the Cabo de Gata-Nijar Natural Park and the Tabernas Desert, an area of volcanic origin known for its wide sandy beaches. Both the cities are found in the Almeria Province in southeastern province. Other locations used for filming were in southern and central Italy, including the area of Camposecco, the hills around Castelluccio, parks of Valle del Treja, the area around the Tivoli’s quarries, and Gran Sasso mountain and Sardina.

Spaghetti Westerns has had an extensive road to recognition in the world of film. When the movie first came, they were looked upon unfavorably. They did not burst onto the American film scene, but they entered slowly into the cinematic landscape of the late 1960s. They filled a void made by an increase in western Hollywood’s production for television. The Americans despised the films, considered them fake hence used the term “Spaghetti Westerns” in a negative way to distinguish these Cinecitta Studios (Rome) productions from traditional Westerns. After a close study of the sub-genre and its film making virtues, they discovered that the film was spawned from Western. Then they developed soundtrack, visual language, themes, distinct characters, and iconography. The unique characters of the sub-genre had a lot of influence over the decades in diverse filmmakers.

In spite of being one of most Hollywood pre-eminent and formidable genres, the industry was producing fewer and fewer western films by the 1950s. With the growing television’s popularity, were created by westerns for the small screen instead of the silver one. But still, the demands for the western films continued overseas, where televisions were not catching on as fast. As such, Italian studios rapidly increased their western genre film supply, most of which were produced in Italian studios. The majority of the films were filmed in Spain due to their locations. They resembled that of the Mexican and the Americans southwest border. Rome’s Cinecitta studio produced 200+ films yearly and had a talent for production that they could even mimic the established American cinema genres. However, the Italian cinema production culture still infused the genre films ensuing in a distinctly unique type of American westerns which audiences were used to.

Spaghetti Western introduced a new life into traditional Western whose fashion was falling out in the late 1950s. As a result, it created an essential and unique place in cinematic history. Excessive violence, blood, bullets, and dynamite, which were central to Spaghetti Westerns, set them apart from traditional Westerns. Also, the background score, camera shots, symbols, and themes were distinct, as well. For instance, in Westerns, heroes and villains were identified by their hats’ colors. Villains wore a black hat while heroes a white hat.

On the other hand, in Spaghetti Westerns, the main characters expressed no moral compass and were not afraid to kill either for revenge, gold, or political cause. As a result, the main characters were anti-heroes, but not pure heroes who rode away in the grey middle line away from ideas of absolute honesty and goodness. The anti-heroes often put on black attire in the form of a black hat, vest, or poncho. The Spaghetti Western characters appeared unshaven, rugged, and sunburn, unlike traditional western heroes who are clean looking and well dressed. The Spaghetti had this look to keep with the harsh landscape they found themselves in. Their sunburn faces illustrated the heat-packed land they traveled through. Their unkempt look, with dirty clothing, symbolized the lack of time to clean themselves since they were either was on the hunt or be hunted. Such naturalistic appearances for the characters were not a twist of fate in Spaghetti Western but instead owed motivation to Italian neo-realist cinema.

Admittedly, Spaghetti Westerns produced their meta-world apart from Italians or Western life. In their film, elements of reality crept in the storyline like the religious, family clan, and political references or symbols interspersed throughout the movie like the church, cross, priests, and church. In terms of main plots, Spaghetti Westerns are termed to lie into three camps- bounty hunter films, political stories, and revenge tales. Sergio Leon’s films focused on the bounty hunter, in the money guest, which was an end goal in itself. The other major plot was about revenge killing, to retaliate a loved one murder or a family.

These vengeance killings mostly portrayed with savage brutality, an eye for an eye taken to its blood-spattered conclusion. In the sub-genres later phase, political plots were included in the stories hence resulting in films that featured freedom of people from a cruel general/family clan/ruler. These films were known as Zapata Western, and their stories took the oppressed side against the hierarchy, thus resonating with the common man. Gallows humor, dark, and a deep cynicism, which spoke to an altogether diverse view of social codes described them.

The Hollywood had Garry Cooper and John Wayne fighting on the justice side while Spaghetti Western was driven by their desires, rather than compulsion to societal good. They operated by taking advantage of the disarray to secure their interest. Regardless of the playful use of the existence iconography of the genre, the films were intensely self-conscious of the tradition of classic American cinema. In ways, both delicate and up-front, they played off of Hollywood/ American-defined western mythology.

In conclusion, one feature that set Italian apart was their bleak portrayed of the West. Contrasting the American westerns of this period, which were usually family-friendly entertainment starring “white hat” hero cowboys, Spaghetti Westerns embraced the severity of the Old West. They also pushed beyond the American standards of violence, featuring characters that had both villainous and heroic traits. I think Spaghetti Western films can inspire bad morals in the community. This is because their films lie into revenge, and the characters are not afraid to kill for political cause or vengeance. Therefore their personalities can influence young people and be a threat to the community.

Work Cited

A Fistful of Dollars (The Christopher Frayling Archives: A Fistful of Dollars) (Blu-ray disc). Los Angeles, California: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. 1967.

Frayling, Christopher Spaghetti Westerns: Cowboys and Europeans from Karl May to Sergio Leone I.B.Tauris, 27 January 2006

“Top 100 Western Movies – Rotten Tomatoes”. www.rottentomatoes.com. Archived from the original on 23 March 2015. Retrieved 8 May 2018.

Tommasini, Anthony (27 June 2004). “MUSIC; The First Spaghetti Western”. The New York Times. Retrieved 14 July 2011.