The Mondo-Esoterica Guide to

The Spaghetti Western

About The Spaghetti Western

The term Spaghetti Western was originally a derogatory expression given by American reviewers to the boom of Italian produced Western films in the 1960s. Since then it has become an accepted term for the hundreds of Italian made Western films shot in Europe between 1964 and 1978 which have also been known as Maracroni Westerns and Westerns Al'Italia. Spaghetti Western is sometimes used as a catch-all term for the broader Euro-Western genre, which includes films shot by Spanish, British and German filmmakers, as well as some Italian films that pre-date and followed the real Spaghetti Western era. This article specifically covers the true Spaghetti Westerns - the Italian produced Westerns that were produced in response to Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy.

History of the genre:

Since the earliest days of moving pictures, the Wild West has been a popular source of cinematic inspiration - a legendary period of history filled with heroes and villains - plenty of action and horse riding - and in some highly impressive landscapes. Although Westerns were shot in Europe as far back as the silent movie era, they met with little sucess and the Americans ruled, to the extent that the Western was often described as a completely original American art form.

The early seeds for the Spaghetti Western boom were sown in 1959 when Italian directors Sergio Leone and Sergio Corbucci were filming sword-and-sandal epic The Last Days of Pompeii (1959) in Spain and noted the potential for the Spanish deserts as a backdrop for a Western. At the time however, with American productions readily available, there appeared to be no real interest from producers or audiences for Italian made Westerns. The American grip on the Western was loosened in 1962 however with the highly sucessful German production Treasure at Silver Lake (1962). Based on the popular Old West novels by German writer Karl May, it soon spawned a whole series known as the Karl May Westerns. The films used dramatic Jugoslavian landscapes to represent the Old West and included epic action and adventure scenes.

Perhaps more important to the formation of the Italian Western style was the small British production Savage Guns (1962) directed by Michael Carreras, son of James Carreras, founder of the iconic British horror studio Hammer Films. Michael had pushed for the studio to expand into more diverse genres but his plans had been rejected and so he set out independently to create a Western. The film used the Almeria desert area of Spain to represent the American West and introduced the familiar Spaghetti Western storyline of a lone mysterious gunslinger. While the film performed poorly and the British lost interest in the genre, the Spanish co-production company Tecisa went on to shoot several small Westerns including Duello nel Texas (1963) in the Spanish desert regions. Although the background cast were Spanish or Italian, the films still boasted American lead actors and often Anglicised the names of the cast and crew to pass of the film as an American production.

In America the Western had declined in popularity somewhat in the late 1950s and after a brief boom at the beginning of the 1960s with films like The Magnificent Seven (1960), production faltered, not least due to tough competition from television Western series. European audiences however were still keen to watch traditional Westerns in the cinema and so producers looked to fill the gap with more erzatz Westerns, filmed both in Spain and alongside the German films in Jugoslavia. Although making some money, the films were often little more than clones of the earlier American productions and gained no critical attention. This would all change in 1964 when the experienced assistant director Sergio Leone was given a directoral chair for another small budget production, shot on leftover film stock. A long time fan of the genre, he had been disappointed to see it decline in to tired cliché in the 1960s and set out to write a script that would do something new. Entitled Fistful of Dollars (1964) and starring imported American TV Western actor Clint Eastwood, the film was completely different to any Western ever produced on either side of the Atlantic and proved amazingly sucessful, playing around the world. Suddenly the genre, which some critics had called dead at the beginning of the year, was the becoming hottest property around and Italian producers who were struggling to squeeze the last drops from the Peplum formula, saw a chance to try something new - the Spaghetti Western was born.

The next two years however, saw the Italian Western facing an identity crisis - Italian and European audiences were slowly coming to accept the notion of a homemade Western, but the films had not created an identity of their own and many of them retained a very American feel, still relying on imported actors and Americanised names. Duccio Tessari, a co-writer on Fistful of Dollars, wrote and directed A Pistol for Ringo (1965) - a relatively minor film, but notable for being the first appearance of the infamous Ringo character who would later evolve into Django, Sabata, Sartana and many more iconic and repeated characters that would come to help define the Italo-Western. Come 1966 the genre had finally achieved its identity when Sergio Corbucci wrote and directed Django (1966), directly countering the typical American Western look with a grim, muddy townscape and anti-heroics, coupled with a graphic display of bloody violence. Later that year, Sergio Sollima presented The Big Gundown (1966), introducing hard hitting left-wing politics and Mexican settings that would become a genre mainstay.

With the notion of an Italian Western now firmly accepted, the second half of the 1960s saw the Italian film-makers gain the confidence to part completely with the styles of the American films and inject a heavy dose of European surreality, leading to films like the bizarre Death Sentence (1968) and the the incomparable Django Kill (1967), alongside experimental projects that sought inspiration from Shakespeare (Johnny Hamlet (1968)) and Greek tragedy (Il Pistolero dell'Ave Maria (1969)). The grim tones of Django were expanded to the utterly nihilistic Great Silence (1969), while left-wing politics would form a key focal point for a whole sub-section of the genre known as the Zapata Western and epitomised by Damiano Damiani's epic A Bullet for the General (1967).

Unfortunately, as was typical in Italian cinema at the time, every original and well made film was matched by several derivative and generic entries and ultimately this oversaturation meant that by the 1970s, audiences were tiring of seeing the same thing over-and-over. Although the early 1970s saw some stand-out films, including comic/political mix Companeros (1970) and the Terence Hill and Bud Spencer comedy Lo chiamavano Trinità (1970), most of the productions were mere exploitation pieces with endlessly repeating storylines, often delving deeper into slapstick comedy and self-parody. A few interesting ideas emerged as film-makers began resorting to gimmicks like the Kung-Fu Western - merging the newly popular martial arts movies with the Wild West in films such as Il Mio nome è Shangai Joe (1972) - but these too became tired when endlessly repeated.

The genre clung on for a few more years until 1976 when, influenced by the sucess of Sam Peckinpah's revisionist American Westerns, Spaghetti Western stalwart Enzo G. Castellari returned to the genre and directed the sucessful Keoma (1976). However, despite a small flurry of copycat titles, it was to prove a one-off success and by 1978 the genre was finished - Lucio Fulci's Silver Saddle (1978) is often considered the last true Spaghetti Western. While American Westerns slowly returned to the screens during the 1990s and made a slight resurgence - the Italo-Western has remained largely dormant although its best known works have been the focus of a few tribute films including American television film Dollar for the Dead (1998) and the Japanese production Sukiyaki Western Django (2007).

The People:

The first lead actors to appear in the Spaghetti Westerns were American. As with the earlier Peplum films, producers brought in American actors for the lead roles both to help them sell the films across Europe and to try and convince audiences that they were watching an American film. Having failed to secure any of the Hollywood stars he approached (including Henry Fonda and James Coburn) for the poorly paid leading role in Fistful of Dollars, Leone used American television cowboy Clint Eastwood as his star, bringing in Lee Van Cleef and then Eli Wallach for the two sequels. While Eastwood would not appear in another Italian Western, Van Cleef stayed in Europe and had over a dozen starring roles in the genre, while Wallach appeared in a few later entries. Fonda and Coburn would make the trip after seeing the popularity of Leone's films, appearing in C'era una volta il West (1968) and Giù la testa (1971) respectively.

A great many American actors would appear in the genre during the boom years and when the budgets allowed this included a number of established stars like Jack Palance (Companeros (1970)), Yul Brynner (Adios Sabata (1971)), Joseph Cotten (The Hellbenders (1967)) and Ernest Borgnine (Los desesperados (1969)). Several soon to be well known American actors crossed the Atlantic for one-off appearances including William Shatner (Comanche blanco (1968)), John Phillip Law (Death Rides a Horse (1968)) and Burt Reynolds (Navajo Joe (1966)). A select few followed Van Cleef and became Euro-cult regulars, such as Frank Wolff (Il grande silenzio (1968), Henry Silva (Un Fiume di dollari (1966)) and Cuban born Tomas Milian (Se sei vivo Spara (1967)).

While the Peplum leading parts had been all but dominated by American actors, the Spaghetti Westerns would come to feature Italian actors in the title roles, beginning with Franco Nero whose iconic appearance in Django would make him an instant genre favourite and earn him over a dozen appearances as well as a lengthy career in Euro-cult cinema. With the way opened, many Italian actors found a career in Western leading roles, including Gianni Garko (star of the Sartana series, he made his start in the incredible 10.000 Dollari per un Massacro (1967)), Fabio Testi (who made his first appearances as an extra in the Leone films, later gaining the leading role in Anda muchacho, spara! (1971)), Anthony Steffen (W Django! (1971) and best known of all, Terence Hill who gained a few genre lead roles in the mid 1960s, but became famous in comedy parts alongside co-star Bud Spence thanks to Lo chiamavano Trinità (1970) and its subsequent sequels and spin-offs.

With German producers backing many of the Spaghetti Westerns, German actors were often cast in leading roles to help the films sell domestically. The trend began with Klaus Kinski's appearance in For a Few Dollars More (1965) and despite later scorning his work in the genre, he would go on to become one of its most prolific stars, appearing in over twenty titles. Peter Lee Lawrence also made his start in an uncredited bit-part (as Mortimer's doomed brother-in-law in the flashbacks) in For a Few Dollars More and would headline six more genre titles in a tragically short career. Considered much more reliable than Kinski, character actor Horst Frank would appear in six Westerns, including Preparati la bara! (1968) while Austrian born William Berger made twelve appearances including They Call him Cemetery (1971).

Behind the camera, names were being made too, none more so than Sergio Leone, whose iconic films kick-started the genre - although despite gaining international fame after the Dollars trilogy and C'era una volta il West (1968) he only made one more Western, the action packed Giù la testa (1971), stepping in here only after the signed director walked out. Far more prolific was his former colleague Sergio Corbucci who made four Westerns before finding success with Django (1966) and went on through the 1960s to helm some of the genre's most iconc titles including Companeros (1970), before declining, like the genre as a whole into self-parody in the 1970s and aside from directing a couple of Terence Hill, Bud Spencer comedies in the late 1980s, he would not make anything of note after the genre came to an end. The 'third Sergio', Sergio Sollima made just three genre entries, La resa dei conti (1966), Faccia a faccia (1967) and Corri uomo corri (1968), but the marriage of a mainstream genre and overt left-wing politics, previously confined to art-house cinema, would have a great influence on Italian cult cinema as a whole and his trio of Westerns are often ranked among the genre's best.

Away from the best known productions, a legion of hard working Italian directors contributed to the Spaghetti Western. Future Euro-cult regular Enzo G. Castellari gained his first credit, stepping in on Some Dollars for Django (1966) and went on to make several of the genre's most action packed titles before moving into crime and gialli in the early 1970s, only to return when the genre was considered dead to direct Franco Nero in the dark Keoma (1976) and the bizarre comedy Cipolla Colt (1976). Enzo Barboni (best known as E.B. Clucher) worked as cinematographer on some of the best known Italo-Westerns, including Django (1966) and Preparati la bara! (1968) and his own contributions to the genre were no less important, directing Terence Hill and Bud Spencer in Lo chiamavano Trinità (1970) and its sequel.

Gianfranco Parolini (usually known as Frank Kramer) would only make four genre titles, but inspired by a love of James Bond trickery he created two of the genre's most popular characters in Se incontri Sartana prega per la tua morte (1968) and Ehi amico... c'è Sabata, hai chiuso! (1969). Giuliano Carnimeo (Anthony Ascott) took over the Sartana franchise from Parolini and made it his own, eventually helming ten Westerns including Gli fumavano le Colt... lo chiamavano Camposanto (1971). Ferdinando Baldi contributed some of the genre's most diverse titles from the solid Django sequel Preparati La Bara (1968), to the musical Little Rita Nel West (1967) and the utterly bizarre Get Mean (1976) which saw the lead character fighting Vikings in the Old West.

With Spaghetti Westerns emerging from every Italian studio, it inevitably employed a number of directors who would later become famous for other genres. Horror icon Mario Bava made three Westerns inbetween his better known works, including the comedy Roy Colt & Winchester Jack (1971), while Lucio Fulci, at the time a solid but unremarked director, made the early genre entry Massacre Time with Franco Nero and George Hilton before returning to helm what would become the genre's final entry, Silver Saddle (1978). Although he did not direct any Westerns, Dario Argento made his first cinematic contributions co-writing the script for Oggi a me... domani a te! (1968) and Un esercito di cinque uomini (1969). Euro-cult everyman Antonio Margheriti helmed a few Westerns, including Kung-fu crossover El kárate, el Colt y el impostor (1974) and blaxploitation title Take a Hard Ride (1975), while future cannibal movie director Umberto Lenzi helmed three titles, including Una pistola per cento bare (1968). Exploitation king-pin Joe D'Amato, best known for his sleazy erotica, cut his teeth as a cinematographer on a number of Spaghetti Westerns including Una lunga fila di croci (1969) before directing the Canadian set Giubbe rosse (1974).

The Legacy:

The Spaghetti Western was the second of the big Euro-Cult genres, following on from the Sword and Sandle Pepla films of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Compared to the often family friendly Pepla, and marking the increasing liberalisation of the era, the Spaghetti Westerns saw Euro-Cult cinema becoming firmly adult orientated, with blood and nudity becoming increasingly common, particularly into the 1970s when the sucessor genres, the Giallo and Crime films took these exploitation elements to new levels.

The sucess of the films meant that an entire industry was built up in Southern Spain and producers from outside Italy were quick to catch on to the genre's profitability and the ease of shooting there. A number of domestic Spanish Westerns, the British produced Hannie Caulder (1971) and even a few American produced Westerns including 100 Rifles (1969) and two of the Magnificant Seven sequels were shot in the Almeria deserts. Around the world as well, this European Western boom proved that Westerns were viable outside the USA, and genre films were shot as far afield as Russia, Turkey and Israel over the next decade.

American Western filmmakers, most famously Sam Peckinpah and later Clint Eastwood himself, quickly responded to the European titles with the Revisionist Western which similarly questioned the clear good/bad divides between characters and also aimed for more realism in their depiction of the Old West - something generally missing from the Spaghetti Westerns where many of the lead gunmen could shoot a target from a mile away and never seemed to run out of ammunition. This boost would fuel the American Western until the end of the 1970s when the disasterous flop Heaven's Gate (1980) became the genre's death knell.

DVD Reviews: Spaghetti Westerns

Spaghetti Westerns have been quite poorly served by DVD, especially in the USA and UK where the often limited distribution of the titles when originally screened, means a distinct lack of copyright owners, and so although the most famous (ie. Sergio Leone) titles have received repeated releases, many of the lesser known films are only to be found on low quality, public domain or grey market discs. Fortunately, many of these titles have emerged on DVD in Japan, Germany and Italy, with a good number including English audio or subtitles, so a Spaghetti Western fan wanting a varied collection will have to shop around internationally to find all the films they want, but there are still large gaps in the number of titles available, with many films feared all but lost.

All text in this page written by Timothy Young - October 2007 - March 2010.
Text from this review not to be used without authorization.

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