Western films have many sub categories with Classical Westerns being the most notable. Star director John Ford made numerous Classical Western films which became instant classics with one of the most recognizable faces in all of America, John Wayne, as the lead character. Another popular subcategory of Western films is Spaghetti Westerns.
Spaghetti Westerns, named for the primarily Italian directors that made them, were characterized as being low budget films. With the majority of these films being shot in parts of Spain that resembled the American Mountain West, these films were notorious for having more action and being more violent than Classical Westerns.
The most famous of the spaghetti Westerns is the 1966 film The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. This film is dramatically violent with numerous killings. Another spaghetti Western, Navajo Joe, depicts an outlaw Duncan who has massacred an entire Indian village. The brutal violence and heavy action in directors Sergio Leone and Sergio Corbucci’s movies hoped to excite viewers about the Western film again which had become somewhat repetitive. Leone has been quoted as saying that he depicted such violent killings in his films because this was how Cowboys in the West actually were. Spaghetti Westerns were drawing on the violence that had become associated with America during the 1960’s.
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Western films have many sub categories with Classical Westerns being the most notable. Star director John Ford made numerous Classical Western films which became instant classics with one of the most recognizable faces in all of America, John Wayne, as the lead character. Another popular subcategory of Western films is Spaghetti Westerns.
ReplyDeleteSpaghetti Westerns, named for the primarily Italian directors that made them, were characterized as being low budget films. With the majority of these films being shot in parts of Spain that resembled the American Mountain West, these films were notorious for having more action and being more violent than Classical Westerns.
The most famous spaghetti Western, filmed in 1966, was The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. The three main characters in the film Blondie, Angel Eyes, and Tuco are all in search of the $200,000 worth of gold. Blondie is a professional gunslinger that is in the search for more money. Angel Eyes is a hit man that will do anything as long as there is money on the table and Tuco is a wanted outlaw. While Tuco knows the name of the cemetery where the treasure is buried, Blondie know the name of the grave. At the end of this wild shoot out Angel Eyes is dead, Tuco is left to fight for his life, and Blondie rides off on his horse with half of the gold.
Leone’s mocking of America exemplified many of the beliefs of America, and what it liked to call manifest destiny, that were expressed by foreigners. The brutal display of violence that was shown in Leone’s film was no accident. He portrayed America in this light because of the reputation it had earned. Leone was also critical of America by showing people only finding motivation through financial gain. This negative view of the transformation of manifest destiny and American exceptionalism was shared by many people outside of the United States. Manifest destiny was not about just expansion but rather it was driven by financial gains towards imperialistic ideals. American exceptionalism blinded Americans from seeing the damage that their actions had caused.