In the mid-1960s, a group of Italian filmmakers took the American Western, stripped out its moral certainty, cranked up the violence and the style, and shot it in the deserts of Almeria, Spain. The result was the spaghetti western: operatic, cynical, gorgeous, and scored by Ennio Morricone with whistles, twanging guitars, and coyote howls. Sergio Leone was its Michelangelo, Clint Eastwood its Man with No Name.
These films rewrote the genre and everything after it, from Peckinpah to Tarantino to Red Dead Redemption. Below is the whole dusty trail: Leone's untouchable run, the wild Django and Sabata cycles, the films that carried the torch, and the games, novels, and soundtracks that keep the Italian West alive. Keep your hand near your holster.
Essential spaghetti westerns
Django, Sabata and the cycles
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is the genre's Sistine Chapel
Leone's Civil War epic is three hours of greed, betrayal, and cannon fire building to the greatest showdown ever filmed: three men, a circular graveyard, and Morricone's Ecstasy of Gold. Nothing in the Western canon, American or Italian, tops that final standoff. It is opera with revolvers.
The genre's heirs
Ride the West: the games
The Morricone sound
Morricone is the real author of the spaghetti western
Strip Ennio Morricone's scores from these films and half their power evaporates. The wailing voices, the twanging jaw harp, the trumpet that sounds like a funeral and a triumph at once. He did not accompany the images, he completed them. The Ecstasy of Gold is as important to the genre as any camera move.
The timeline
- 1964A Fistful of Dollars launches the genre and Clint Eastwood A Fistful of Dollars
- 1965For a Few Dollars More refines the formula For a Few Dollars More
- 1966The Good, the Bad and the Ugly becomes the genre's masterpiece The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
- 1966Django spawns dozens of unofficial sequels Django
- 1968Once Upon a Time in the West turns the genre into elegy Once Upon a Time in the West
- 1968The Great Silence subverts every convention in the snow The Great Silence
- 2012Django Unchained brings the genre roaring back Django Unchained
- 2018Red Dead Redemption 2 makes the Italian West playable Red Dead Redemption 2
Once Upon a Time in the West is the most beautiful Western ever made
Leone slows everything down to a funeral crawl and turns the coming of the railroad into an elegy for the whole frontier. Henry Fonda cast against type as pure evil, Claudia Cardinale as the soul of the new West, and a harmonica that means revenge. It is the genre reaching for tragedy and grabbing it.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is a spaghetti western you can live in
Rockstar built an entire dying frontier out of Leone's DNA: the moral rot, the beautiful vistas, the elegy for outlaws whose time is ending. Arthur Morgan's slow reckoning is pure Once Upon a Time in the West, playable. It is the genre's finest modern descendant, in any medium.
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Explore the Giallo: The Complete Guide to Italian Horror-Thrillers guide →Frequently asked
What is a spaghetti western?
A spaghetti western is a Western film made by Italian directors and crews, mostly in the mid-1960s to mid-1970s, typically shot in Spain with international casts. The term was originally derogatory but came to define a distinct style: cynical anti-heroes, stylized violence, extreme close-ups, operatic pacing, and unforgettable Ennio Morricone scores. Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy is the definitive example.
Why is it called a spaghetti western?
The name was coined by critics as a dismissive nod to the films' Italian origins. Italian production companies churned out hundreds of Westerns in the 1960s, and American commentators used spaghetti western to distinguish them from Hollywood's output. Fans reclaimed the label, and it is now used with affection for a genre widely regarded as some of the greatest Westerns ever made.
Where should I start with spaghetti westerns?
Start with Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy: A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, in that order. Then watch Once Upon a Time in the West, his elegiac masterpiece. For something darker, The Great Silence is essential. And to experience the genre interactively, Red Dead Redemption 2 is its greatest modern heir.