Spaghetti Western - wikipedia Spaghetti Western While not the first in the genre, the highly successful A Fistful of Dollars ( 1964 ) was among the most influential. Spaghetti Western, also known as Italian Western or Macaroni Western ( primarily in Japan ), is a broad subgenre of Western films that emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone 's film - making style and international box - office success. The term was used by American critics and other countries because most of these Westerns were produced and directed by Italians. According to veteran Spaghetti Western actor Aldo Sambrell, the phrase ' Spaghetti Western ' was coined by Spanish journalist Alfonso Sánchez. The denomination for these films in Italy is western all'italiana ( Italian - style Western ). Italo - Western is also used, especially in Germany. The term Eurowesterns may be used to also include Western movies that were produced in Europe but not called Spaghetti Westerns, like the West German Winnetou films or Ostern Westerns. The majority of the films were international co-productions between Italy and Spain, and sometimes France, Germany, Portugal, Greece, Israel, Yugoslavia, or the United States. These movies were originally released in Italian, but as most of the films featured multilingual casts and sound was post-synched, most `` western all'italiana '' do not have an official dominant language. The typical Spaghetti Western team was made up of an Italian director, Italo - Spanish technical staff, and a cast of Italian, Spanish, German, and American actors, sometimes a fading Hollywood star and sometimes a rising one like the young Clint Eastwood in three of Sergio Leone 's films. Over six hundred European Westerns were made between 1960 and 1978. The best - known Spaghetti Westerns were directed by Sergio Leone and scored by Ennio Morricone, notably the three films of the Dollars Trilogy ( starring Clint Eastwood as the main character ) -- A Fistful of Dollars ( 1964 ), For a Few Dollars More ( 1965 ) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly ( 1966 ) -- as well as Once Upon a Time in the West ( 1968, starring Charles Bronson ). These are consistently listed among the best Westerns of any variety. Contents 1 Common elements 2 Filming locations 3 Reception 4 Rise and fall 4.1 European Westerns from the beginning 4.2 The first Spaghetti Western 4.3 Impact of A Fistful of Dollars 4.4 For a Few Dollars More and its followers 4.5 Zapata Westerns 4.6 Betrayal stories 4.7 Django and the tragic heroes 4.8 Comedy Westerns 4.9 Twilight of the Spaghetti Western 4.10 Other notable films 5 Legacy 6 Notable personalities 6.1 Actors 6.2 Directors 6.3 Composers 7 See also 8 References 9 References 10 External links Common elements Sergio Leone 's A Fistful of Dollars established the Spaghetti Western as a novel kind of Western. In this seminal film, the hero enters a town that is ruled by two outlaw gangs, and ordinary social relations are non-existent. He betrays and plays the gangs against one another in order to make money. Then he uses his cunning and exceptional weapons skill to assist a family threatened by both gangs. His treachery is exposed and he is severely beaten, but in the end he defeats the remaining gang. The interaction in this story between cunning and irony ( the tricks, deceits, unexpected actions and sarcasms of the hero ) on the one hand, and pathos ( terror and brutality against defenseless people and against the hero after his double play has been revealed ) on the other, was aspired to and sometimes attained by the imitations that soon flooded the cinemas. Italian cinema often borrowed from other films without regard for infringement, and Leone famously borrowed the plot for A Fistful of Dollars, receiving a letter from Japanese director Akira Kurosawa congratulating him on making ``... a very fine film. But it is my film ''. Leone had imitated one of the most highly respected directors in the world by remaking his film Yojimbo as A Fistful of Dollars and consequently surrendered Asian rights to Kurosawa, plus 15 % of the international box office proceeds. Leone later moved from borrowing, and established his own oft - imitated style and plots. Leone 's films and other `` core '' Spaghetti Westerns are often described as having eschewed, criticised or even `` demythologized '' many of the conventions of traditional U.S. Westerns. This was partly intentional and partly the context of a different cultural background. Use of pathos received a big boost with Sergio Corbucci 's influential Django. In the years following, use of cunning and irony became more prominent. This was seen in Leone 's next two Westerns, with their emphasis on unstable partnerships. In the last phase of the Spaghetti Western, with the Trinity films, the Leone legacy had been transformed almost beyond recognition, as terror and deadly violence gave way to harmless brawling and low comedy. Ennio Morricone 's music for A Fistful of Dollars and later Spaghetti Westerns was just as seminal and imitated. It expresses a similar duality between quirky and unusual sounds and instruments on the one hand, and sacral dramatizing for the big confrontation scenes on the other. Filming locations Most Spaghetti Westerns filmed between 1964 and 1978 were made on low budgets and shot at Cinecittà studios and various locations around southern Italy and Spain. Many of the stories take place in the dry landscapes of the American Southwest and Northern Mexico, hence a popular setting was the Tabernas Desert, at the studios of Texas Hollywood, Mini Hollywood, and Western Leone, along with the Cabo de Gata - Níjar Natural Park, which is a park made of volcanic origin and is well known for its wide sandy beaches, both of which are in the Province of Almería in southeastern Spain. Other filming locations used were in central and southern Italy, such as the parks of Valle del Treja ( between Rome and Viterbo ), the area of Camposecco ( next to Camerata Nuova, characterized by a karst topography ), the hills around Castelluccio, the area around the Gran Sasso mountain, and the Tivoli 's quarries and Sardinia. God 's Gun was filmed in Israel. Reception In the 1960s, critics recognized that the American genres were rapidly changing. The genre most identifiably American, the Western, seemed to be evolving into a new rougher form. For many critics, Sergio Leone 's films were part of the problem. Leone 's Dollars Trilogy ( 1964 -- 1966 ) was not the beginning of the `` Spaghetti Western '' cycle in Italy, but for Americans Leone 's films represented the true beginning of the Italian invasion of an American genre. Christopher Frayling, in his noted book on the Italian Western, describes American critical reception of the Spaghetti Western cycle as, to `` a large extent, confined to a sterile debate about the ' cultural roots ' of the American / Hollywood Western. '' He remarks that few critics dared admit that they were, in fact, `` bored with an exhausted Hollywood genre. '' Pauline Kael, he notes, was willing to acknowledge this critical ennui and thus appreciate how a film such as Akira Kurosawa 's Yojimbo ( 1961 ) `` could exploit the conventions of the Western genre, while debunking its morality. '' Frayling and other film scholars such as Bondanella argue that this revisionism was the key to Leone 's success and, to some degree, to that of the Spaghetti Western genre as a whole. Rise and fall European Westerns from the beginning European Westerns are as old as filmmaking itself. The Lumière brothers made their first public screening of films in 1895 and already in 1896 Gabriel Veyre shot Repas d'Indien ( `` Indian Banquet '' ) for them. Joe Hamman starred as Arizona Bill in films made in the French horse country of Camargue 1911 -- 12. In Italy, the American West as a dramatic setting for spectacles goes back at least as far as Giacomo Puccini 's 1910 opera La fanciulla del West ; it is sometimes considered to be the first Spaghetti Western. The first Italian Western movie was La Vampira Indiana ( 1913 ) -- a combination of Western and vampire film. It was directed by Vincenzo Leone, father of Sergio Leone, and starred his mother Bice Walerian in the title role as Indian princess Fatale. The Italians also made Wild Bill Hickok films, while the German twenties saw back - woods Westerns featuring Bela Lugosi as Uncas. Of the Western - related European films before 1964, the one attracting most attention is probably Luis Trenker 's Der Kaiser von Kalifornien ( 1936 ), about John Sutter. During and after the Second World War there were scattered European uses of Western settings, mostly for comedy or musical comedy. Considered the precursor of the genre, the comedy Il fanciullo del West ( 1943 ) was the first Western parody of Italian cinema. The first Spaghetti Western A forerunner of the genre had appeared in 1943 Giorgio Ferroni 's Il fanciullo del West ( The Boy in the West ) and a cycle of Western comedies was initiated 1959 with La sceriffa and Il terrore dell'Oklahoma, followed by other films starring comedy specialists like Walter Chiari, Ugo Tognazzi, Raimondo Vianello or Fernandel. An Italian critic has compared these comedies to American Bob Hope vehicles. The first American - British western filmed in Spain was The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw ( 1958 ), directed by Raoul Walsh. It was followed in 1961 by Savage Guns, a British - Spanish western, again filmed in Spain. This marked the beginning of Spain as a suitable film shooting location for any kind of European western. In 1963, three non-comedy Italo - Spanish westerns were produced : Gunfight at Red Sands, Magnificent Three and Gunfight at High Noon. In 1961 an Italian company co-produced the French Taste of Violence, with a Mexican Revolution theme. Since there is no real consensus about where to draw the exact line between Spaghetti Westerns and other Eurowesterns ( or other Westerns in general ) one can not say which one of the films mentioned so far really was the first Spaghetti Western. However, it is obvious that 1964 saw the breakthrough of this genre, with more than twenty productions or co-productions from Italian companies and also more than half a dozen Westerns by Spanish or Spanish / American companies. Furthermore, by far the most commercially successful of this lot was Sergio Leone 's A Fistful of Dollars whose innovations in cinematic style, music, acting and story decided the future for the genre. Impact of a Fistful of Dollars The Spaghetti Western was born, flourished and faded in a highly commercial production environment. The Italian `` low '' popular film production was basically low - budget and low - profit, and the easiest way to success was imitating a proven success. When the typically low - budget production A Fistful of Dollars turned into a remarkable box office success, the industry eagerly lapped up its innovations. Most succeeding Spaghetti Westerns tried to get a ragged, laconic hero with superhuman weapon skill, preferably one who looked like Clint Eastwood : Franco Nero, Giuliano Gemma, John Garko and Terence Hill started out that way ; Anthony Steffen and others stayed that way all their Spaghetti Western career. Whoever the hero was, he would join an outlaw gang to further his own secret agenda, like in A Pistol for Ringo, Blood for a Silver Dollar, Vengeance Is a Dish Served Cold, Payment in Blood and others, while Beyond the Law instead has a bandit infiltrate society and become a sheriff. There would be a flamboyant Mexican bandit ( Gian Maria Volontè from A Fistful of Dollars, otherwise Tomas Milian or most often Fernando Sancho ) and a grumpy old man -- more often than not an undertaker, to serve as sidekick for the hero. For love interest, rancher 's daughters, schoolmarms and barroom maidens were overshadowed by young Latin women desired by dangerous men, where actresses like Nicoletta Machiavelli or Rosalba Neri carried on Marianne Koch 's role of Marisol in the Leone film. The terror of the villains against their defenseless victims became just as ruthless as in A Fistful of Dollars, or more, and their brutalization of the hero when his treachery is disclosed became just as merciless, or more -- just like the cunning used to secure the latter 's retribution. In the beginning some films mixed some of these new devices with the borrowed US Western devices typical for most of the 1963 -- 64 Spaghetti Westerns. For example, in Sergio Corbucci 's Minnesota Clay ( 1964 ) that appeared two months after A Fistful of Dollars, an American style `` tragic gunfighter '' hero confronts two evil gangs, one Mexican and one Anglo, and ( just as in A Fistful of Dollars ) the leader of the latter is the town sheriff. In the same director 's Johnny Oro ( 1966 ) a traditional Western sheriff and a half - breed bounty killer are forced into an uneasy alliance when Mexican bandits and Native Americans together assault the town. In A Pistol for Ringo a traditional sheriff commissions a money - oriented hero played by Giuliano Gemma ( with more pleasing manners than Eastwood 's character ) to infiltrate a gang of Mexican bandits whose leader is played by typically Fernando Sancho. For a Few Dollars more and its followers After 1965 when Leone 's second Western For a Few Dollars More brought a larger box office success, the profession of bounty killer became the choice of occupation of Spaghetti Western heroes in films like Arizona Colt, Vengeance Is Mine, Ten Thousand Dollars for a Massacre, The Ugly Ones, Dead Men Do n't Count and Any Gun Can Play. In The Great Silence and A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die, the heroes instead fight bounty killers. This was also the time when every other hero or villain in Spaghetti Westerns started carrying a musical watch, after its ingenious use in For a Few Dollars More. Spaghetti Westerns also began featuring a pair of different heroes. In Leone 's film Eastwood 's character is an unshaven bounty hunter, dressed similarly to his character in A Fistful of Dollars, who enters an unstable partnership with Mortimer, an older bounty killer who uses more sophisticated weaponry and wears a suit ( Lee Van Cleef ). In the end he turns out to also be an avenger. In the following years there was a deluge of Spaghetti Westerns with a pair of heroes with ( most often ) conflicting motives. Examples include : a lawman and an outlaw ( And the Crows Will Dig Your Grave ), an army officer and an outlaw ( Bury Them Deep ), an avenger and a ( covert ) army officer ( The Hills Run Red ), an avenger and a ( covert ) guilty party ( Viva ! Django ), an avenger and a con - man ( The Dirty Outlaws ), an outlaw posing as a sheriff and a bounty hunter ( Man With the Golden Pistol ) and an outlaw posing as his twin and a bounty hunter posing as a sheriff ( Few Dollars for Django ). The theme of age in For a Few Dollars More, where the younger bounty killer learns valuable lessons from his more experienced colleague and eventually becomes his equal, is taken up in Day of Anger and Death Rides a Horse. In both cases Lee Van Cleef carries on as the older hero versus Giuliano Gemma and John Phillip Law, respectively. Zapata Westerns One variant of the hero pair was a revolutionary Mexican bandit and a mostly money - oriented American from the United States frontier. These films are sometimes called Zapata Westerns. The first was Damiano Damiani 's A Bullet for the General and then followed Sergio Sollima 's trilogy : The Big Gundown, Face to Face and Run, Man, Run. Sergio Corbucci 's The Mercenary and Compañeros also belong here, as does Tepepa by Giulio Petroni -- among others. Many of these films enjoyed both good takes at the box office and attention from critics. They are often interpreted as a leftist critique of the typical Hollywood handling of Mexican revolutions, and of imperialism in general. Betrayal stories In Leone 's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly there is still the scheme of a pair of heroes vs. a villain but it is somewhat relaxed, as here all three parties were driven by a money motive. In subsequent films like Any Gun Can Play, One Dollar Too Many and Kill Them All and Come Back Alone several main characters repeatedly form alliances and betray each other for monetary gain. Sabata and If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death, directed by Gianfranco Parolini, introduce into similar betrayal environments a kind of hero molded on the Mortimer character from For a Few Dollars More, only without any vengeance motive and with more outrageous trick weapons. Fittingly enough Sabata is performed by Lee Van Cleef himself, while John Garko plays the very similar Sartana protagonist. Parolini made some more Sabata movies while Giuliano Carnimeo made a whole series of Sartana films with Garko. Django and the tragic heroes Sergio Corbucci 's Django, while highly controversial at the time of its release due to its level of violence, set new standards for Spaghetti Western film making. Beside the first three Spaghetti Westerns by Leone, a most influential film was Sergio Corbucci 's Django starring Franco Nero. The titular character is torn between several motives -- money or revenge -- and his choices bring misery to him and to a woman close to him. Indicative of this film 's influence on the Spaghetti Western style, Django is the hero 's name in a plenitude of subsequent westerns. Even though his character is not named Django, Franco Nero brings a similar ambience to Texas, Adios and Massacre Time where the hero must confront surprising and dangerous family relations. Similar `` prodigal son '' stories followed, including Chuck Moll, Keoma, The Return of Ringo, The Forgotten Pistolero, One Thousand Dollars on the Black, Johnny Hamlet and also Seven Dollars on the Red. Another type of wronged hero is set up and must clear himself from accusations. Giuliano Gemma starred in a series of successful films carrying this theme -- Adiós gringo, For a Few Extra Dollars, I lunghi giorni della vendetta, Wanted, and to some extent Blood for a Silver Dollar -- where most often his character is called `` Gary ''. The wronged hero who becomes an avenger appears in many Spaghetti Westerns. Among the more commercially successful films with a hero dedicated to vengeance -- For a Few Dollars More, Once Upon a Time in the West, Today We Kill... Tomorrow We Die !, A Reason to Live, a Reason to Die, Death Rides a Horse, Viva Django, The Devil 's Backbone, Hate for Hate, Greatest Robbery in the West -- those with whom he cooperates typically have conflicting motivations. Comedy Westerns In 1968, the wave of Spaghetti Westerns reached its crest, comprising one - third of the Italian film production, only to collapse to one - tenth in 1969. However, the considerable box office success of Enzo Barboni 's They Call Me Trinity and the pyramidal one of its follow - up Trinity Is Still My Name gave Italian filmmakers a new model to emulate. The main characters were played by Terence Hill and Bud Spencer, who had already cooperated as hero pair in the `` old style '' Spaghetti Westerns God Forgives... I Do n't !, Boot Hill and Ace High directed by Giuseppe Colizzi. The humor started in those movies already, with scenes with comedic fighting, but the Barboni films became burlesque comedies. They feature the quick but lazy Trinity ( Hill ) and his big, strong and irritable brother Bambino ( Spencer ). The stories make fun of U.S. Western - style diligent farmers and Spaghetti Western - style bounty hunters. There was a wave of Trinity - inspired films with quick and strong heroes, the former kind often called Trinity or perhaps coming from `` a place called Trinity '', and with no or few killings. Because the two model stories contained religious pacifists to account for the absence of gunplay, all the successors contained religious groups or at least priests, sometimes as one of the heroes. The music for the two Trinity westerns ( composed by Franco Micalizzi and Guido & Maurizio De Angelis, respectively ) also reflected the change into a lighter and more sentimental mood. The Trinity - inspired films also adopted this style. Some critics deplore these post-Trinity films as a degeneration of the `` real '' Spaghetti Westerns, and that Hill 's and Spencer 's skilful use of body language was a hard act to follow. It is significant that the most successful of the post-Trinity films featured Hill ( Man of the East, A Genius, Two Partners and a Dupe ), Spencer ( It Can Be Done Amigo ) and a pair of Hill / Spencer look - alikes in Carambola. Spaghetti Western old hand Franco Nero also worked in this subgenre with Cipolla Colt and Tomas Milian plays an outrageous `` quick '' bounty hunter modeled on Charlie Chaplin 's Little Tramp in Sometimes Life Is Hard -- Right Providence ? and Here We Go Again, Eh, Providence ? Twilight of the Spaghetti Western Leone 's later Westerns Once Upon a Time in the West ; Duck, You Sucker ! and the produced and co-directed My Name is Nobody in 1973 did very well at the Italian box - office but did not inspire the industry to imitations like his first three did. In fact, Duck, You Sucker ! has been interpreted as a critical comment on the Zapata Westerns and My Name is Nobody includes Terence Hill as a Trinity - like character. By the mid-seventies a few productions, like Keoma and Four of the Apocalypse, tried to revive the pre-Trinity formulas but basically the Spaghetti Western was dead as an active genre. Later years have seen some `` return of stories '' Django 2 with Franco Nero and Troublemakers with Terence Hill and Bud Spencer. Other notable films Some movies that were not very successful at the box office still earn a `` cult '' status in some segment of the audience because of certain exceptional features in story and / or presentation. One `` cult '' Spaghetti Western that also has drawn attention from critics is Giulio Questi 's Django Kill. Other `` cult '' items are Cesare Canevari 's Matalo !, Tony Anthony 's Blindman and Joaquín Luis Romero Marchent 's Cut - Throats Nine ( the latter among gore film audiences ). Special interest audiences might also nurture a cult of the `` Worst '', as exemplified in the interest for a director like Ed Wood. His Spaghetti Western equivalent would be the Western œuvre of Demofilo Fidani. The Stranger ( 1995 ) is essentially, the Woman with No Name, with a motorcycle instead of a horse. The few Spaghetti Westerns containing historical characters like Buffalo Bill, Wyatt Earp, Billy the Kid etc. mainly appear before A Fistful of Dollars had put its mark on the genre. Likewise, and in contrast to the contemporary German Westerns, few films feature Indians. When they appear they are more often portrayed as victims of discrimination than as dangerous foes. The only fairly successful Spaghetti Western with an Indian main character ( played by Burt Reynolds in his only European Western outing ) is Sergio Corbucci 's Navajo Joe, where the Indian village is wiped out by bandits during the first minutes, and the avenger hero spends the rest of the film dealing mostly with Anglos and Mexicans until the final showdown at an Indian burial ground. Several Spaghetti Westerns are inspired by classical myths and dramas. Titles like Fedra West ( also called Ballad of a Bounty Hunter ) and Johnny Hamlet signify the connection to the Greek myth and possibly the plays by Euripides and Racine and the play by William Shakespeare, respectively. The latter also inspired Dust in the Sun, which follows its original more closely than Johnny Hamlet, where the hero survives. The Forgotten Pistolero is based on the vengeance of Orestes. There are similarities between the story of The Return of Ringo and the last canto of Homer 's Odyssey. Fury of Johnny Kid follows Shakespeare 's Romeo and Juliet, but ( again ) with a different ending -- the loving couple leave together while their families annihilate each other. It is acknowledged that the story of A Fistful of Dollars closely resembles Akira Kurosawa 's Yojimbo. Requiem for a Gringo shows many traces from another well - known Japanese film, Masaki Kobayashi 's Harakiri. When Asian martial arts films started to draw crowds in European cinema houses, the producers of Spaghetti Westerns tried to hang on, this time not by adapting story - lines but rather by directly including martial arts in the films, performed by Eastern actors -- for example Chen Lee in My Name Is Shanghai Joe or Lo Lieh teaming up with Lee Van Cleef in The Stranger and the Gunfighter. Some Italian Western films were made as vehicles for musical stars, like Ferdinando Baldi 's Rita of the West featuring Rita Pavone and Terence Hill. In non-singing roles were Ringo Starr as a villain in Blindman and French rock ' n ' roll veteran Johnny Hallyday as the gunfighter / avenger hero in Sergio Corbucci 's The Specialists. A celebrity from another sphere of culture is Italian author / film director Pier Paolo Pasolini, who plays a revolutionary man of the church in Requiescant. This film concerns oppression of poor Mexicans by rich Anglos and ends on a call for arms but it does not fit easily as a Zapata Western. The same can be said for The Price of Power, a political allegory where an American president is assassinated in Dallas by a conspiracy of Southern racists who frame an innocent Afro - American. They are opposed by an unstable partnership between a whistle - blower ( Giuliano Gemma ) and a political aide. Though the Spaghetti Westerns from A Fistful of Dollars and on featured more violence and killings than earlier American Western films, they generally shared the parental genre 's restrictive attitude toward explicit sexuality. However, in response to the growing commercial success of various shades of sex films, there was a greater exposure of naked skin in some Spaghetti Westerns, among others Dead Men Ride and Heads or Tails. In the former and partly the latter, the sex scenes feature coercion and violence against women. Even though it is hinted at in some films, like Django Kill and Requiescant, open homosexuality plays a marginal part in Spaghetti Westerns. The exception is Giorgio Capitani 's The Ruthless Four -- in effect a gay version of John Huston 's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre -- where the explicit homosexual relation between two of its male main characters and some gay cueing scenes are embedded with other forms of man - to - man relations through the story. Legacy Spaghetti Westerns have left their mark on popular culture, strongly influencing numerous works produced outside of Italy. Clint Eastwood 's first American Western film, Hang ' Em High ( 1968 ), incorporates elements of Spaghetti Westerns. The Bollywood film Sholay ( 1975 ) was often referred to as a `` Curry Western ''. A more accurate genre label for the film is the `` Dacoit Western '', as it combined the conventions of Indian dacoit films such as Mother India ( 1957 ) and Gunga Jumna ( 1961 ) with that of Spaghetti Westerns. Sholay spawned its own genre of `` Dacoit Western '' films in Bollywood during the 1970s. The 1985 Japanese film Tampopo was promoted as a `` ramen Western ''. Japanese director Takashi Miike paid tribute to the genre with Sukiyaki Western Django, a Western set in Japan which derives influence from both Django and Sergio Leone 's Dollars Trilogy. American director Quentin Tarantino has utilized elements of Spaghetti Westerns in his films Kill Bill ( combined with kung fu movies ), Inglourious Basterds ( set in Nazi - occupied France ), Django Unchained ( set in the American South during the time of slavery ). and The Hateful Eight ( set in Wyoming post-US Civil War ). The American animated film Rango incorporates elements of Spaghetti Westerns, including a character modeled after The Man With No Name. The American heavy metal band Metallica has used Ennio Morricone 's composition `` The Ecstasy of Gold '', from the Spaghetti Western The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, to open several of their concerts. The Australian band The Tango Saloon combines elements of Tango music with influences from Spaghetti Western scores. The psychobilly band Ghoultown also derives influence from Spaghetti Westerns. The music video for the song `` Knights of Cydonia '' by the English rock band Muse was influenced by Spaghetti Westerns. The band Big Audio Dynamite used music samples from Spaghetti Westerns when mixing their song '' Medicine Show ''. Within the song you can hear samples from Spaghetti Western movies such as A Fistful of Dollars, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, and Duck You Sucker. Notable personalities Actors Mario Adorf Chelo Alonso Ángel Álvarez Leo Anchóriz Tony Anthony R.G. Armstrong Tina Aumont Raf Baldassare Brigitte Bardot Walter Barnes Rik Battaglia Femi Benussi Iris Berben William Berger Jack Betts Martine Beswick Erika Blanc José Bódalo Frank Braña Mario Brega Charles Bronson Yul Brynner Mark Damon Luis Dávila Alain Delon Clint Eastwood George Eastman Jack Elam Eduardo Fajardo Henry Fonda Franco Franchi Horst Frank Michael Forest Ida Galli Tito Garcia Gianni Garko Giuliano Gemma Anthony Ghidra Leo Gordon Franco Graziosi Brett Halsey Ty Hardin Mickey Hargitay Richard Harrison Craig Hill Terence Hill George Hilton Robert Hossein Cris Huerta Robert Hundar Jeffrey Hunter Luis Induni Ciccio Ingrassia John Ireland Steve Kanaly Ella Karin Olga Karlatos Tony Kendall Klaus Kinski Marianne Koch Frank Latimore John Phillip Law Peter Lee Lawrence Friedrich von Ledebur Geoffrey Lewis Lo Lieh Helga Liné Lorella De Luca Piero Lulli Nicoletta Machiavelli Guy Madison Leonard Mann Peter Martell Conrado San Martín George Martin Jean Martin José Manuel Martín Elsa Martinelli Vonetta McGee Patrick McGoohan Toshiro Mifune Tomas Milian Gloria Milland Miou - Miou Soledad Miranda Cameron Mitchell Gordon Mitchell Antonio Molino Rojo Ricardo Montalbán Maria Monti Al Mulock Tatsuya Nakadai Nieves Navarro Rosalba Neri Franco Nero Alex Nicol Loredana Nusciak Donald O'Brien Jack Palance Luciana Paluzzi Mimmo Palmara Nello Pazzafini James Philbrook Luigi Pistilli Wayde Preston Edmund Purdom Anthony Quinn Giovanna Ralli Ivan Rassimov Rada Rassimov Lynn Redgrave Dean Reed Fernando Rey Burt Reynolds Jason Robards Lorenzo Robledo Giacomo Rossi - Stuart Antoine Saint - John Enrico Maria Salerno Aldo Sambrell Conrado San Martín Pedro Sanchez Fernando Sancho Telly Savalas Bud Spencer Ringo Starr Anthony Steffen Benito Stefanelli Rod Steiger Woody Strode José Suárez Fabio Testi Marilù Tolo Jean - Louis Trintignant Romolo Valli Lee Van Cleef Dan van Husen Pilar Velázquez Linda Veras Gian Maria Volontè Eli Wallach David Warbeck Patrick Wayne Orson Welles Frank Wolff Ken Wood Robert Woods Richard Wyler Directors Alfonso Balcázar Gianfranco Baldanello Ferdinando Baldi Enzo Barboni Luigi Bazzoni Mario Bianchi Tanio Boccia Alfonso Brescia Mario Caiano Mario Camus Giorgio Capitani Alberto Cardone Giuliano Carnimeo Enzo G. Castellari Tonino Cervi Nando Cicero Giuseppe Colizzi Bruno Corbucci Sergio Corbucci Massimo Dallamano Damiano Damiani Alberto De Martino Giovanni Fago Giorgio Ferroni Demofilo Fidani Lucio Fulci Franco Giraldi Romolo Guerrieri Terence Hill Robert Hossein Ignacio F. Iquino León Klimovsky Umberto Lenzi Sergio Leone Carlo Lizzani Maurizio Lucidi Michele Lupo Antonio Margheriti Sergio Martino Bruno Mattei Domenico Paolella Gianfranco Parolini, often credited as Frank Kramer Giulio Petroni Giulio Questi Giancarlo Santi Leopoldo Savona Sergio Sollima Pasquale Squitieri Giorgio Stegani Quentin Tarantino Duccio Tessari Tonino Valerii Florestano Vancini Giuseppe Vari Terence Young Primo Zeglio Composers Luis Bacalov Stelvio Cipriani Guido & Maurizio De Angelis Francesco De Masi Gianni Ferrio Nico Fidenco Fabio Frizzi Marcello Giombini Coriolano Gori Lallo Gori Angelo Francesco Lavagnino Franco Micalizzi Ennio Morricone Bruno Nicolai Riz Ortolani Piero Piccioni Roberto Pregadio Gianfranco Reverberi Gian Piero Reverberi Carlo Rustichelli Carlo Savina Armando Trovajoli Piero Umiliani See also Italy portal Film portal List of Spaghetti Western films Co-productions in Spanish cinema Ostern Revisionist Western ZWAM, a youth movement in Madagascar inspired by Spaghetti Westerns References Jump up ^ A Fistful of Dollars ( The Christopher Frayling Archives : A Fistful of Dollars ) ( Blu - ray disc ). Los Angeles, California : Metro - Goldwyn - Mayer. 1967. Jump up ^ `` The Spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone ''. spaghetti-western.net. Jump up ^ `` BEGINNER 'S GUIDE TO THE SPAGHETTI WESTERN ''. spaghetti-western.net. Jump up ^ Joyner, C. Courtney Aldo Sambrell Interview The Westerners : Interviews with Actors, Directors, Writers and Producers McFarland, 14 October 2009, p. 180 Jump up ^ Frayling ( 2006 ) pp. 68 - 70 Jump up ^ Fridlund ( 2006 ) p. 5 Jump up ^ Riling ( 2011 ) p. 334. Jump up ^ Top 100 Western Movies at Rotten Tomatoes Jump up ^ Patterson, John ( September 1, 2011 ). `` Why Hollywood ca n't get enough Akira Kurosawa remakes ''. The Guardian. Jump up ^ Brizio - Skov, Flavia ( Nov 15, 2011 ). Popular Italian Cinema : Culture and Politics in a Postwar Society. I.B. Tauris. p. 102. ISBN 978 - 1848855724. Jump up ^ Dirks, Tim. `` Western Films - Sergio Leone 's ' Spaghetti ' Westerns ''. American Movie Classics Company LLC. Retrieved 24 February 2009. Jump up ^ Frayling ( 2006 ) pp. 39 -- 67 Jump up ^ Moliterno, Gino ( 2008 ). `` Western All'Italiana ''. Historical Dictionaries of Literature and the Arts 28. Scarecrow Press. pp. 338 -- 339. Jump up ^ Dozens of ' Spaghetti ' Westerns have been filmed at Mini Hollywood Jump up ^ https://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Diamante_Lobo Jump up ^ Frayling ( 2006 ) pp. 121 -- 137 Jump up ^ Frayling ( 2006 ) pp. 39 -- 40 Jump up ^ Charles Ford : Histoire du Western ( Paris : Ed. Albin Michel, 1976 ) p. 263ff ; George N. Fenin and William K. Everson ( New York : Orion Press, 1962 ) p. 322ff Jump up ^ Huizenga, Tom. `` Happy Birthday ' Fanciulla ' -- Puccini 's Spaghetti Western Turns 100 ''. National Public Radio. Retrieved 14 July 2011. Jump up ^ Tommasini, Anthony ( 27 June 2004 ). `` MUSIC ; The First Spaghetti Western ''. The New York Times. Retrieved 14 July 2011. Jump up ^ Frayling ( 2000 ) p. 29ff Jump up ^ Frayling ( 2006 ) p. 1ff Jump up ^ Patrick Robertson ; Stefano Grossi. I record del cinema. Enciclopedia dei fatti, delle curiosità e dei primati del cinema mondiale, dall'epoca del muto ad oggi ( in Italian ). Gremese, 2004, p. 100. ISBN 9788884402738. Jump up ^ Mary Ellen Higgins ; Rita Keresztesi ; Dayna Oscherwitz. The Western in the Global South. Routledge, 2015. ISBN 9781317551065. Jump up ^ Gino Moliterno. Historical Dictionary of Italian Cinema. Scarecrow Press, 2008, p. 339. ISBN 9780810862548. Jump up ^ Mario Molinari, Prima che arrivassero gli ' spaghetti ' Segnocinema 22 ( March 1986 ), Vicenza Jump up ^ Frayling ( 2006 ) pp. 68 -- 102 Jump up ^ Gaberscek, Carlo ( 2008 ). `` Zapata Westerns : The Short Life of a Subgerne ( 1966 -- 1972 ) ''. Bilingual Review. 29 ( 2 / 3 ) : 45 -- 58. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 25 April 2011. Jump up ^ Frayling ( 2006 ) pp. 217 -- 44, Fridlund ( 2006 ) pp. 173 -- 99 Jump up ^ Frayling ( 2006 ) pp. 82 finds over thirty Django films, with renaming in French versions included. Fridlund ( 2006 ) pp. 98 -- 100 finds only 47 German titles containing the word `` Django ''. Jump up ^ The term is used by Fridlund ( 2006 ) pp. 101 -- 09 Jump up ^ Fridlund ( 2006 ) p. 238 - 40 Jump up ^ Fridlund ( 2006 ) p. 237,245 Jump up ^ Fridlund ( 2006 ) p. 237,248 - 51 Jump up ^ Catalogo Bolaffi del cinema italiano, ( Turin : Giulio Bolaffi Editore, 1967 ) ; Poppi, Roberto / Pecorari, Mario, Dizonario del Cinema Italiano, I Film del 1960 al 1969,. I Film del 1970 al 1979, ( Gremese Editore 1992 and 1996 respectively ) ; Associazione Generalo Italiana Dello Spettacolo ( A.G.I.S. ), Catalogo generale dei film italiani dal 1965 al 1978, ( Rome V edizione 1978 ). Jump up ^ `` The Stranger ''. Rotten Tomatoes. 2008 - 07 - 13. Retrieved 2014 - 01 - 18. Jump up ^ An agreement was signed to compensate the authors of Yojimbo for the resemblance. See Frayling ( 2000 ) pp. 148 -- 49. Jump up ^ Fridlund ( 2006 ) pp. 216 - 17 Jump up ^ `` Weekly Classics : Bollywood 's Curry Western ''. dawn.com. Jump up ^ Teo, Stephen ( 2017 ). Eastern Westerns : Film and Genre Outside and Inside Hollywood. Taylor & Francis. p. 122. ISBN 9781317592266. Jump up ^ `` Spaghetti Western served up in Japan ''. japantimes.co.jp. Jump up ^ `` Kill Bill Vol. 2 ''. Exclaim !. Jump up ^ `` DEBATING INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS ''. filmquarterly.org. Jump up ^ `` Why Django Unchained 's Slavery Tale Had to Be a Spaghetti Western ''. vulture.com. Jump up ^ This Is Big Audio Dynamite -- esmark.net. Jump up ^ Frayling ( 2006 ) pp 256 - 66, Weisser pp 363 - 461, Riling pp 346 - 453, The Spaghetti Western Database Jump up ^ `` Once Upon a Time in the West ''. Rotten Tomatoes. References Fisher, Austin ( 2011 ). Radical Frontiers in the Spaghetti Western : Politics, Violence and Popular Italian Cinema. 175 Fifth Avenue New York NY : I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd. ISBN 1 - 84885 - 578 - 8. Frayling, Christopher ( 2006 ). Spaghetti westerns : cowboys and Europeans from Karl May to Sergio Leone ( Revised paperback edition ). London, New York : I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd. ISBN 978 - 1 - 84511 - 207 - 3. Retrieved 27 April 2011. Frayling, Christopher : Sergio Leone : Something to Do with Death ( London : Faber, 2000 ) Fridlund, Bert : The Spaghetti Western. A Thematic Analysis. Jefferson, NC and London : McFarland & Company Inc., 2006. Print. Gale, Richard ( Winter 2003 ). `` SPAGHETTI WESTERNS ''. Journal of Popular Film & Television. 30 ( 4 ) : 231. Liehm, Mira. Passion and Defiance : Film in Italy from 1942 to the Present. Berkeley : U of California P, 1984. Print. McClain, William ( 2010 ). `` Western, Go Home ! Sergio Leone and the ' Death of the Western ' in American Film Criticism ''. Journal of Film & Video. 6 ( 1 / 2 ) : 52 -- 66. doi : 10.5406 / jfilmvideo. 62.1 - 2.0052. Riling, Yngve P, The Spaghetti Western Bible. Limited Edition, ( Riling, 2011 ). Print 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 Look up spaghetti western in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. The Spaghetti Western Database 10,000 Ways to Die, a book about Spaghetti Westerns made between 1963 and 1973, released under a Creative Commons license by its author Alex Cox Exploitation film Blaxploitation Bruceploitation Cannibal ( Cannibal boom ) Canuxploitation Eurospy Euro War / Macaroni Combat Giallo Hippie Martial arts Mexploitation Mockbuster Mondo Nazi exploitation Nunsploitation Outlaw biker Ozploitation Poliziotteschi Pornochanchada Rape and revenge Rumberas film Sexploitation Slasher Spaghetti Western Splatter Sword - and - sandal Vansploitation Women in prison Film genres By style Action Arthouse Heroic bloodshed Hong Kong action Adventure Survival Art Biographical Christian Comedy Black Commedia all'italiana Commedia sexy all'italiana Bromantic Dramedy Gross out Horror Parody Mo lei tau Thriller Remarriage Romantic Sex Screwball Silent Slapstick Documentary Animated Docudrama Mockumentary Mondo Pseudo Semi Travel Drama Dramedy Historical Legal Melodrama Korean Erotic Commedia sexy all'italiana Pink Sexploitation Thriller Educational Social guidance Epic Sword - and - sandal Experimental Exploitation see Exploitation film template Fantasy Comic Contemporary Dark Fairy tale Fantastique High Historical Magic realism Science Film noir Bad girl Neo-noir Occult detective Pulp noir Tech noir Gothic Romance Southern Space Suburban Urban Horror Body Cannibal Comedy Eco Fantastique Found footage German underground Ghost Giallo Holiday Japanese Korean Lovecraftian Mumblegore Natural New French Extremity Occult detective Psycho - biddy Psychological Religious Science Fiction Slasher Splatter Satanic Mumblecore Mumblegore Musical Backstage Jukebox Musicarello Operetta Sceneggiata Mystery Giallo Occult detective Pornographic Hardcore pornography Softcore pornography Propaganda Reality Romantic Comedy Bromantic Fantasy Gothic Paranormal Thriller Science fiction Comic Cyberpunk Fantastique Fantasy Gothic Horror Military Mundane New Wave Parallel universe Planetary romance Space opera Steampunk Western Thriller Comedy Conspiracy Erotic Financial Giallo Legal New French Extremity Political Psychological Romantic Techno Transgressive Cinema of Transgression New French Extremity Trick By theme Animals Beach party Blaxploitation Body swap Bourekas Buddy Buddy cop Female Cannibal Chicano Colonial Coming - of - age Concert Crime Gentleman thief Gong'an Heist Hood Gangster Mafia Mafia comedy Poliziotteschi Yakuza Gokudō Dance Disaster Apocalyptic Drug Psychedelic Stoner Dystopian Economic Ethnographic Extraterrestrial Food and drink Funny animal Gendai - geki Ghost Goona - goona epic Gothic Romance Southern Space Suburban Urban Ecchi Girls with guns Harem Hentai Tentacle erotica Lolicon Kaitō Magical girl Mecha Shotacon Yaoi Yuri Homeland Jidaigeki LGBT Luchador Martial arts Bruceploitation Chopsocky Gun fu Kung fu Wuxia Mecha Mexploitation Monster Giant monster Jiangshi Kaiju Vampire Werewolf Zombie Mountain Mouth of Garbage Muslim social Nature Environmental issues Opera Outlaw biker Ozploitation Partisan film Pirate Prison Women Race Rape and revenge Road Rubble Rumberas Samurai Sexploitation Bavarian porn Commedia sexy all'italiana Mexican sex comedy Nazi exploitation Pornochanchada Nunsploitation Sex report Shomin - geki Slavery Slice of life Snuff Crush South Seas Sports Spy Eurospy Superhero Surfing Swashbuckler Sword - and - sandal Sword and sorcery Travel Trial Vigilante War Anti-war Euro War Submarine Western Acid Florida Meat pie Northern Ostern revisionist Space Spaghetti Weird Zombie Zombie comedy By movement or period Absolute Australian New Wave Auteur films Berlin School Bourekas Brighton School British New Wave Kitchen sink realism Budapest school Cannibal boom Cinéma du look Cinema Novo Cinema of Transgression Cinéma pur Commedia all'italiana Documentary Film Movement Dogme 95 Erra Cinema European art cinema Film gris Free Cinema French New Wave German Expressionist German underground horror Nigerian Golden Age Grupo Cine Liberación Heimatfilm Hollywood on the Tiber Hong Kong New Wave Iranian New Wave Italian futurist Italian neorealist Japanese New Wave Kammerspielfilm L.A. Rebellion Lettrist Mumblecore Neorealist New French Extremity New German New Generation New Hollywood New Nollywood New Queer No wave Nuevo Cine Mexicano Parallel cinema Persian Film Poetic realist Polish Film School Poliziotteschi Praška filmska škola Prussian film Pure Film Movement Remodernist Romanian New Wave Spaghetti Western Socialist realist Social realist Kitchen sink realism Soviet Parallel Structural Surrealist Sword - and - sandal Telefoni Bianchi Third Cinema Yugoslav Black Wave By audience Adult Chick flick Children 's Family Guy - cry Stag Teen Woman 's By format, technique, approach, or production 3D Actuality Animation anime cartoon computer stop - motion traditional Anthology Art B movie Black - and - white Blockbuster Bollywood Cinéma vérité Classical Hollywood cinema Collage Color Compilation Composite Cult midnight movie Database cinema Docufiction Ethnofiction Experimental Abstract Feature Featurette Film à clef Film noir Film - poem Found footage Grindhouse Hyperlink cinema Independent Guerrilla filmmaking Interstitial art Live action animation Low - budget Major studio Making - of Masala Message picture Meta - film Mockbuster Musical short Mythopoeia Neorealist No budget Paracinema Participatory Poetry Postmodernist Reverse motion Sceneggiata Semidocumentary Serial Shinpa Short Silent Socialist realist Sound Underground Video nasty Z movie Italian film genres and movements 1900s - 1940s Italian futurism Italian neorealism Telefoni Bianchi Cinecittà 1950s - 1980s Cannibal films Cannibal boom Commedia all'italiana Commedia sexy all'italiana Eurospy / Spaghetti Spy Giallo Hollywood on the Tiber Macaroni Combat / Euro War / Spaghetti War Mondo films Musicarello Nunsploitation Peplum / Sword - and - Sandal Poliziotteschi Sadiconazista Sceneggiata Spaghetti Western Zapata Western Women in prison GND : 4298687 - 4 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Spaghetti_Western&oldid=834237595 '' Categories : Spaghetti Western films Italian films by genre Western ( genre ) films by genre Film genres Exploitation films Metaphors referring to spaghetti Hidden categories : CS1 Italian - language sources ( it ) All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from March 2017 Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Talk Contents About Wikipedia Български Català Čeština Dansk Deutsch Español Esperanto Euskara فارسی Français Frysk Gaeilge Galego 한국어 Bahasa Indonesia Íslenska Italiano עברית ქართული Қазақша Kiswahili Magyar Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Norsk nynorsk Polski Português Română Русский Simple English Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska Türkçe Українська Tiếng Việt 中文 30 more Edit links This page was last edited on 4 April 2018, at 17 : 09. 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Question: where did the phrase spaghetti western come from
Answer: because most of these Westerns were produced and directed by Italians