Spaghetti Western

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The Spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's filmmaking style and international box-office success.^[1] The term was used by foreign critics because most of these Westerns were produced and directed by Italians.^[2]

The majority of the films in the spaghetti Western genre were international co-productions by Italy and Spain, and sometimes France, West Germany, Britain, Portugal, Greece, Yugoslavia, and the United States. Over six hundred European Westerns were made between 1960 and 1978.^[3] Most spaghetti Westerns filmed between 1964 and 1978 were made on low budgets, and shot at Cinecittà Studios and various locations around southern Italy and Spain.^[4]

Leone's films and other core spaghetti Westerns are often described as having eschewed, criticized or even "demythologized"^[5] many of the conventions of traditional U.S. Westerns. This was partly intentional, and partly the context of a different cultural background.^[6] In 1968, the wave of spaghetti Westerns reached its crest, comprising one-third of the Italian film production, only to collapse to one-tenth in 1969. Spaghetti Westerns have left their mark on popular culture, strongly influencing numerous works produced in and outside of Italy.