Spaghetti Westerns are a very odd creation, they are an outside view of a time period and lifestyle which is completely unique the the United States. Because of it being an outside viewpoint there are different points of emphasis that when looked at in the same light as the other Westerns they may seem down right ludicrous. However the main social commentary of our most recent film, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly was that greed is what drives the United States. This is one of the only Western Films we have seen where the money was the only real goal of the characters actions. In every other Western the alpha male cowboy would be doing some morally upstanding task and either be rewarded for it or be given money at some point along the way. This difference shows how the Europeans viewed our culture of the time, all we do is buy buy buy in their eyes where as to us it is nothing.
A secondary social commentary from the spaghetti westerns divergence from classic westerns is that the United States was still struggling to deal with its wide variation of cultures. This was pointed out because it took a European director for there to finally be a Mexican cast as a main role in a Western even though they undoubtedly played a large role in the actual time period of the frontier. Through this gap we can understand how Europe was more progressive when it came to the acceptance of people of different nationalities at this time.
No comments:
Post a Comment