Navajo Joe/ The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

These two spaghetti westerns differ from the classic western largely in terms of violence, race, and the overall portrayal of the American Western cowboy. In Navajo Joe, the movie starts out with gruesome and violent scalpings. Unlike a traditional western where Native Americans would be doing the scalping, this spaghetti western portrays American cowboys doing the scalpings. They show no mercy or code of honor as they destroy a whole village. Evidently the Italian film makers view white Americans to be just as savage as the white Americans viewed Native Americans to be. The next notable difference was Navajo Joe's use of a gun. In traditional American westerns, Native Americans were never seen using rifles, but bow and arrows and more barbaric means of killing. Navajo Joe not only uses a rifle but has the best shot in the movie. Not long into the movie is Navajo Joe seen as the alpha male. Soon the whole town is relying on his help. This spaghetti western portrays the western townspeople as completely helpless against any bandits. Not even the sheriff could stand up to such bandits. He stated that the townspeople do not even carry guns. This is completely opposite of what a traditional western portrays a western town and its sheriff. Also, the righteousness of the cowboys and Indians is changed in the spaghetti western. Navajo Joe portrays the cowboy as being righteous, fighting for the revenge of his people, while making the lead cowboy seem like a villain. The camera always shows Navajo Joe atop a large hill with righteous music playing. In a classic western, the Indians were always shown as barbaric and mysterious. They were never a main character.

One of the most obvious differences between the classic western and the spaghetti western is the violence. Not only is there a lot more violence in both Navajo Joe and the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, but the violence is much more dramatic. In a typical western gun fight, if someone was shot the camera would simply pan away without long, over-the-top dramatics. In these two spaghetti westerns, especially Navajo Joe, when someone is shot their death is drawn out to show them screaming and falling in agony. The directors of the spaghetti westerns obviously really want to accentuate the killing in their films, as they believe violence is one of the most important aspects of the western. Also in the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly there is a bit of racism. Why does the ugly have to be a Mexican? They portray the Mexican as a dirty cheater who is no match for Blondie (Clint Eastwood). The Ugly is always the one being tied around the rope and depending on Blondie. The last difference I noticed was the music. In the classic western the music seemed much more subtle. In these spaghetti westerns it seemed like there was a lot more instances where there was music for a more dramatic effect. The music itself seemed much more dramatic at times and almost too-western like for the movies. It seemed like the spaghetti westerns took every aspect of the traditional western and multiplied it by five. More violence, more music, more racism.