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 film-making style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most of these Westerns were produced and directed by Italians.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is a 1966 Italian epic spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood as "the Good", Lee Van Cleef as "the Bad", and Eli Wallach as "the Ugly". Its screenplay was written by Age & Scarpelli, Luciano Vincenzoni, and Leone, based on a story by Vincenzoni and Leone. Director of photography Tonino Delli Colli was responsible for the film's sweeping widescreen cinematography, and Ennio Morricone composed the film's score, including its main theme. It was an Italian-led production with co-producers in Spain, West Germany, and the United States. Most of the filming took place in Spain.
Yojimbo is a 1961 Japanese samurai film co-written, produced, edited, and directed by Akira Kurosawa. The film stars Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yoko Tsukasa, Isuzu Yamada, Daisuke Katō, Takashi Shimura, Kamatari Fujiwara, and Atsushi Watanabe. In the film, a rōnin arrives in a small town where competing crime lords fight for supremacy. The two bosses each try to hire the newcomer as a bodyguard.
A Fistful of Dollars is a 1964 Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood in his first leading role, alongside Gian Maria Volonté, Marianne Koch, Wolfgang Lukschy, Sieghardt Rupp, José Calvo, Antonio Prieto, and Joseph Egger. The film, an international co-production between Italy, West Germany, and Spain, was filmed on a low budget, and Eastwood was paid $15,000 for his role.
Straight to Hell is a 1987 independent action comedy film directed by Alex Cox and starring Sy Richardson, Joe Strummer, Dick Rude, and Courtney Love. The film also features cameos by Dennis Hopper, Grace Jones, Elvis Costello, Edward Tudor-Pole, Kathy Burke, and Jim Jarmusch. Band members of the Pogues, Amazulu, and the Circle Jerks are also featured in the film. The film borrows its title from the Clash's 1982 song of the same name.
Exiled is a 2006 Hong Kong action drama film produced and directed by Johnnie To, and starring Anthony Wong, Francis Ng, Nick Cheung, Josie Ho, Roy Cheung and Lam Suet, with special appearances by Richie Jen and Simon Yam. The action takes place in contemporary Macau. The film made its premiere at the 63rd Venice International Film Festival, and was in competition for the Golden Lion.
The Great Silence is a 1968 revisionist Spaghetti Western film directed and co-written by Sergio Corbucci. An Italian-French co-production, the film stars Jean-Louis Trintignant, Klaus Kinski, Vonetta McGee and Frank Wolff, with Luigi Pistilli, Mario Brega, Marisa Merlini and Carlo D'Angelo in supporting roles.
Django is a 1966 Spaghetti Western film directed and co-written by Sergio Corbucci, starring Franco Nero as the title character alongside Loredana Nusciak, José Bódalo, Ángel Álvarez and Eduardo Fajardo. The film follows a Union soldier-turned-drifter and his companion, a mixed-race prostitute, who become embroiled in a bitter, destructive feud between a gang of Confederate Red Shirts and a band of Mexican revolutionaries. Intended to capitalize on and rival the success of Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars, Corbucci's film is, like Leone's, considered to be a loose, unofficial adaptation of Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo.
Tony Anthony is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and director best known for his starring roles in Spaghetti Westerns, most of which were produced with the aid of his friends and associates Allen Klein and Saul Swimmer. These films consist of The Stranger series - A Stranger in Town (1967), The Stranger Returns (1967), The Silent Stranger (1968) and Get Mean (1975) - and the Zatoichi-inspired Blindman (1971). Anthony also wrote, produced and starred in Comin' at Ya! (1981) and Treasure of the Four Crowns (1983), the first film being largely credited with beginning the 1980s revival of 3D films in Hollywood.
Face to Face is a 1967 Italian/Spanish international co-production Spaghetti Western film co-written and directed by Sergio Sollima and produced by Alberto Grimaldi. The film stars Gian Maria Volonté, Tomas Milian and William Berger, and features a musical score by Ennio Morricone. It is the second of Sollima's three Westerns, following The Big Gundown and predating Run, Man, Run, a sequel to the former. Milian stars in a lead role in all three films.
Five Thousand Dollars on One Ace is a 1964 Spanish Spaghetti Western film directed by Alfonso Balcázar, scored by Angelo Francesco Lavagnino and Don Powell, and starring Robert Woods, Fernando Sancho and Helmut Schmid.
Long Days of Hate is a 1968 Italian Spaghetti Western film co-written and directed by Gianfranco Baldanello.
The Specialists is a 1969 Spaghetti Western co-written and directed by Sergio Corbucci. It was an international co-production between Italy, France and West Germany. Retrospective critics and scholars of Corbucci's Westerns have deemed The Specialists to be the final film in the director's "Mud and Blood" trilogy, which also includes Django (1966) and The Great Silence (1968).
Django Kill... If You Live, Shoot! is a 1967 Spaghetti Western film directed by Giulio Questi and starring Tomas Milian, Marilù Tolo, Roberto Camardiel, and Ray Lovelock in his film debut.
A Sky Full of Stars for a Roof is a 1968 Italian Spaghetti Western comedy film.
Per il gusto di uccidere is the 1966 Italian Spaghetti Western film debut directed by Tonino Valerii. It is also the first film to use the camera system known as 2P. It was filmed in Almería. It is produced by Francesco Genesi, Vincenzo Genesi, Daniele Senatore, Stefano Melpignano and Jose Lopez Moreno, scored by Nico Massi and edited by Rosa G. Salgado.
Cemetery Without Crosses, is a 1969 Spaghetti Western film by Robert Hossein, its director, co-screenwriter and star.
Get Mean, also known as Beat a Dead Horse, Vengeance of the Barbarians and The Stranger Gets Mean, is a 1975 Italian-American Spaghetti Western film directed by Ferdinando Baldi and starring Tony Anthony, Lloyd Battista, Raf Baldassarre, Diana Lorys and Mirta Miller. It is the final sequel to A Stranger in Town, with Anthony reprising the role of "The Stranger."
The Stranger Returns also known as Shoot First... Laugh Last!, is a 1967 Italian-German-American Spaghetti Western film directed by Luigi Vanzi. It is a sequel to A Stranger in Town.
The Silent Stranger, also known as The Horseman and the Samurai and The Stranger in Japan, is a 1968 Spaghetti Western jidaigeki film directed by Luigi Vanzi. It is the second sequel to A Stranger in Town, with twenty minutes excised for its 1975 release. The film is the third in a series of four western films starring Tony Anthony as "The Stranger". Despite being produced in 1968 for MGM, the film was never given an official release until 1975, nearly a decade after the previous film in the series. Tony Anthony stated that he believed the film became the victim of a power struggle at MGM, and the film was re-edited when it was later released by a different studio.
