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| Between 1960 and 1975,
European filmmakers made nearly 600 western films outside of the United
States. Because they were often financed by Italian investors, they
quickly picked up the name Spaghetti Western. A vast majority of these
films were made in the coastal region of Spain which resembles the
U.S. southwest, and is why so many Spaghetti Westerns take place near
the U.S./Mexican boarder (not to mention the over abundance of Spanish
extras). In 1964, director Sergio Leone was given $200,000 and a bunch of left over raw stock and told to make a movie. He based his movie loosely on an Akira Kurosawa film and got, a then smalltime actor, by the name of Clint Eastwood to play the lead character 'The Man With No Name'. What was supposed to be a low budget, throw away film, became a hit, and by the time it reached the U.S. in 1967 the translated title became 'A Fist Full of Dollars'. With the success of 'Fist Full of Dollars', Leone quickly started work on the sequel, 'For a Few Dollars More'. Eastwood returned, but this time Lee Van Cleef joined the party as a rival to Eastwood's bounty hunter after the same killer. 'For a Few Dollars More' made international celebrities of Eastwood, Cleef, Leone, and composer Ennio Morricone. Leone then closed out the Dollar Trilogy with the best western of all time (spaghetti or not in my opinion) with 'The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly' in 1966. This now classic film featured Eastwood (the good), Cleef (the bad) and a wanted man (the ugly) on the trail of stolen money. As the tagline for the movie says 'For Three Men The Civil War Wasn't Hell. It Was Practice!' If you haven't seen this film, chances are you are familiar with the Morricone score, which has been used ever since as theme music during any showdown. Like them or not, the Spaghetti Western has been embraced by audiences worldwide, and the term is now generally accepted to refer to any Western made and financed by Continental filmmakers. |