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. The term was used by foreign critics because most of these Westerns were produced and directed by Italians.
Francesco Clemente Giuseppe Sparanero, known professionally as Franco Nero, is an Italian actor, producer, and director. His breakthrough role was as the title character in the Spaghetti Western film Django (1966), which made him a pop culture icon and launched an international career that includes over 200 leading and supporting roles in a wide variety of films and television productions.
The revisionist Western is a sub-genre of the Western film. Called a post-classical variation of the traditional Western, the revisionist subverts the myth and romance of the traditional by means of character development and realism to present a less simplistic view of life in the "Old West". While the traditional Western always embodies a clear boundary between good and evil, the revisionist Western does not.
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.
Sergio Corbucci was an Italian film director, screenwriter and producer. He directed both very violent Spaghetti Westerns and bloodless Bud Spencer and Terence Hill action comedies.
William Berger, also known as Bill Berger and Wilhelm Berger, born Wilhelm Thomas Berger was an American actor, mostly associated with Euro and spaghetti Westerns.
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.
Tomas Milian was a Cuban-born actor and singer with American and Italian citizenship, known for the emotional intensity and humor he brought to starring roles in European genre films.
Gianni Garko, often billed as John Garko and occasionally Gary Hudson, is a Dalmatian Italian actor who found fame as a leading man in 1960s Spaghetti Westerns. He is perhaps best known for his lead role as Sartana, starting with the first official film If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death and starring in three sequels as this character, the role played by George Hilton in the third film in the series.
Sartana is a series of Spaghetti Western films which follows the adventures of the title character, a gunfighter and gambler who uses mechanical gadgets and seemingly supernatural powers to trick his rivals. The series features five official entries: If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death (1968), I am Sartana, Your Angel of Death (1969), Sartana's Here… Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin, Have a Good Funeral, My Friend... Sartana Will Pay and Light the Fuse... Sartana Is Coming. The first film was directed by Gianfranco Parolini, with the remaining four directed by Giuliano Carnimeo. Sartana is portrayed by Gianni Garko in all films in the series except for Sartana's Here… Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin, in which he was portrayed by George Hilton.
George Hilton was a Uruguayan actor well known for his many Spaghetti Western performances. Sometimes credited as Jorge Hilton, he appeared in over 20 Euro-Westerns as well as several giallo and action films.
Anthony Steffen, born Antonio Luiz de Teffé von Hoonholtz, was an Italian-Brazilian character actor, screenwriter and film producer. Steffen achieved fame as a leading man in Spaghetti Western features. He was also known as Antonio Luigi de Teffe.
Keoma is a 1976 Italian spaghetti Western film directed by Enzo G. Castellari and starring Franco Nero. It is frequently regarded as one of the better 'twilight' Spaghetti Westerns, being one of the last films of its genre, and is known for its incorporation of newer cinematic techniques of the time and its vocal soundtrack by Guido & Maurizio De Angelis.
Blood at Sundown is a Spaghetti Western film directed by Alberto Cardone. The film is notable as the primary inspiration for the Sartana film series, starring Gianni Garko as a antiheroic incarnation of the villainous character he previously portrayed in Blood at Sundown.
Man, Pride and Vengeance (Italian: L'uomo, l'orgoglio, la vendetta, German: Mit Django kam der Tod is a 1967 Spaghetti Western film written and directed by Luigi Bazzoni and starring Franco Nero, Tina Aumont, and Klaus Kinski. It is a Western film adaptation of the novella Carmen by Prosper Mérimée, and is one of the few Westerns not only filmed, but also set in Europe.
Silver Saddle is a 1978 spaghetti Western. It is the third and final western directed by Lucio Fulci and one of the last spaghetti Westerns to be produced by a European studio. The film was based on an original story written by screenwriter Adriano Bolzoni and directed by Fulci for the Italian studio Rizzoli Film Productions.
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 Strikes Again is a 1987 Italian spaghetti Western film directed by Nello Rossati, under the pseudonym "Ted Archer". It is the only official sequel to Django.
A Few Dollars for Django is a 1966 Italian/Spanish co-production Spaghetti Western film directed by León Klimovsky and Enzo G. Castellari and starring Anthony Steffen. Although credited only to León Klimovsky, A Few Dollars for Django was predominantly directed by an uncredited Enzo G. Castellari.
Django, Prepare a Coffin, alternatively titled Viva Django, is a 1968 Italian spaghetti Western film directed by Ferdinando Baldi. The film was produced by Manolo Bolognini, who also produced Sergio Corbucci's original film. The film stars Terence Hill in the title role, which was previously played by Franco Nero. Originally Nero was intended to star.
