Spaghetti Westerns: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly & Navajo Joe

The classic Western is diverted into what is known as “spaghetti Westerns” when created by directors generally from Italy as well as Spain. These spaghetti Westerns have different takes than the classic Westerns on what the American West actually was. Spaghetti Westerns are generally much more violent, showcasing the West as a land filled with ruthless brutes, disregarding all ‘cowboy ethics’ that the Classic western attempts to portray.
In The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, we see an entirely different approach than what we are used to from the classics. We are presented with three primary alpha male roles; “the Ugly” being Tuco, a two-faced bandit who has no morals, completely consumed by his greed and self-interest, doing anything for his own money and well-being; “the Bad” known as Angel Eyes who falls into the typical category of an ‘alpha villain’, being more wise and canny than Tuco, as well as with a posse of bad guys as his gang just like the typical Western bad guys; and finally, Blondie, who is ideally “the Good”, supposedly representing the typical ‘alpha cowboy’, John Wayne style. The irony of Blondie as an ‘alpha cowboy’ is that the cowboy ethics are inexistent. Rather than being idolized as a hero for doing good for the people and the land, the alpha cowboy is seen working in terms of greed, aiming for money for himself before anything else. All three of the characters, along with everybody else in the film, seem to have only one interest that keeps them going: money.
Spaghetti Westerns seems to make quite an emphasis on the American craze for money. Navajo Joe portrays this inhumane alpha-capitalist ideal throughout the entire film. Everybody, even Joe the Indian, is in it for the money. When an empty train arrives in town, along with the news that all the passengers inside said train were killed, all people worry about is whether the money is safe. Navajo Joe also represents the foreigner’s perspective on the struggle between the white immigrant American and the Native American. In this movie in particular, Joe seamlessly dominates the white men by using his true knowledge and spiritual connection with nature.