Spaghetti Westerns

You could watch all of the Westerns that were made in America, but you would missed out on the other half of Westerns that were shot in European countries which brought the genre to new heights. The Western in itself is depicting the historic battles and stories that came out of American History with dynamic cowboys and symbolic shootouts. The Westren genre combines both stunning visuals/camerawork along with unique characterization of not only the hero, but the villian as well. The shot of Tuco anxiously searching for the grave with the buried treasure in the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly or the 3 way shootout at the cemetary not olny showed very interesting camera work but ancipation. This anticipation is very undermined by a general audience, but in my viewing, I felt it really brought the shootout to another level. Spaghetti westerns grew very popular in the beginning of the 20th century and from then on, people like Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone became well respected. The score of Morricone couldn't have fit more perfect for the scenes in the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Since alot of the movie was build-up and tension, the score had to be suspenseful yet setinmental, and Morricone brilliantly created that. The music was a important part of the Spaghetti Westrens just by the way it really emphasized the actor's emotion on screen. Simply put, the music made the audience more in tuned into the movie and when a movie is so poetic by doing that, you know that you've got a hit on your hands. You wo9uld think that because the Spaghetti Westerns were not filmed in the U.S. that it wouldn't capture the realism of the setting, but since areas like Spain have such an abudance of plains, mountains, and deserts, it's almost like your watching the Alamo happen all over again. These Spaghetti Westerns played a key role in the popularity of the Western genre in the U.S. so much so that actors that weren't making it in American cinema instantly moved to Europe where they became stars overnight. Though the Spaghetti Westerns began to die in the late 70's, one thing that passed on was the creativity and the innovation that came out of it. It really showed directors the importance of the placement of objects/actors in a single shot or how the music you put in can make or break your film.