Spaghetti Westerns - SJC

ince their founding Spaghetti westerns have been distinctively different from classic westerns in almost all aspects of the genre. Classical westerns like High Noon or The Searchers feature an alpha-male cowboy who is strong, silent but lives by a moral compass and always does what is right. This is where the spaghetti western differs from the classical version. Spaghetti westerns do not feature an alpha-male cowboy, who does the right thing or acts morally, but instead he is a questionable character and the audience is never truly sure if he is good or bad. In the film The Good, The Bad and The Ugly the man with no name played by Clint Eastwood is first introduced to the audience as “The good”. This introduction is telling the audience that Clint is the good character in the film. What is ironic about the introduction is the fact that right before being introduced as the good character he is seen stealing from the local government. He and his Mexican bandit friend run a scam where “Blondie” (Clint Eastwood’s nick name) turns in his Mexican friend for a reward, only to turn around and free him a few minutes later. This scam of the local government and working with a criminal displays the moral ambiguity of the spaghetti western. Besides not featuring a morally just alpha-male cowboy the spaghetti western genre is extremely violent when compared to the classical western. In High Noon a classical western film the total death count of the full movie is four bandits. In the film The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance there is only one man killed during the duration of the film; however, in spaghetti westerns like Navajo Joe Violence and death are featured throughout the entire film with the death count being in the high teens.

Like Classical westerns, spaghetti westerns are a reflection on the perceptions of America and how America is view through European eyes. Spaghetti westerns like The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and Navajo Joe show an America obsessed with money, uncaring about the morality of actions and willing to do murder to get revenge. These three traits give the films a far more dark and real feel of what it truly means to be an American.