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.
Sergio Leone was an Italian film director, producer, and screenwriter, credited as the pioneer of the Spaghetti Western genre. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential directors in the history of cinema.
Clinton Eastwood Jr. is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series Rawhide, Eastwood rose to international fame with his role as the "Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's "Dollars Trilogy" of Spaghetti Westerns during the mid-1960s and as antihero cop Harry Callahan in the five Dirty Harry films throughout the 1970s and 1980s. These roles, among others, have made Eastwood an enduring cultural icon of masculinity. Elected in 1986, Eastwood served for two years as the mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.
The Western is a genre of fiction typically set in the American frontier between the California Gold Rush of 1849 and the closing of the frontier in 1890, and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada.
Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez, known professionally as Martin Sheen, is an American actor. In a career spanning six decades he received numerous accolades including three Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and four Screen Actors Guild Award. Sheen is most known for his role as U.S. President Josiah Bartlet in the NBC series The West Wing (1999–2006).
Emilio Estevez is an American actor and filmmaker.
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.
Young Guns is a 1988 American Western action film directed by Christopher Cain and written by John Fusco. It is the first film to be produced by Morgan Creek Productions. It stars Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Charlie Sheen, Dermot Mulroney, Casey Siemaszko, Terence Stamp, Terry O'Quinn, Brian Keith, and Jack Palance, with a brief cameo by Tom Cruise.
Young Guns II is a 1990 American Western action film and a sequel to Young Guns (1988). It stars Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, and Christian Slater, and features William Petersen as Pat Garrett. It was written by John Fusco and directed by Geoff Murphy.
The Dollars Trilogy, also known as the Man with No Name Trilogy, is an Italian film series consisting of three Spaghetti Western films directed by Sergio Leone. The films are titled A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). Their English versions were distributed by United Artists, while the Italian ones were distributed by Unidis and PEA.
Hang 'Em High is a 1968 American DeLuxe Color revisionist Western film directed by Ted Post and written by Leonard Freeman and Mel Goldberg. It stars Clint Eastwood as Jed Cooper, an innocent man who survives a lynching; Inger Stevens as a widow who helps him; Ed Begley as the leader of the gang that lynched Cooper; and Pat Hingle as the federal judge who hires him as a Deputy U.S. Marshal.
Blaze of Glory is the debut solo studio album by Jon Bon Jovi, the frontman of Bon Jovi. The album was released on August 7, 1990, through Mercury Records. It includes songs from and inspired by the movie Young Guns II. Emilio Estevez originally requested Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead or Alive" as the theme song for his upcoming Billy the Kid sequel, but Jon Bon Jovi ended up composing an all-new theme song for the film's soundtrack instead.
April Captains is a 2000 film telling the story of the Carnation Revolution, the military coup that overthrew the corporatist dictatorship in Portugal on 25 April 1974. Although dramatised, the plot is closely based on the events of the revolution and many of the key characters are real - such as Captain Salgueiro Maia and Prime Minister Marcelo Caetano.
Gene Quintano is an American screenwriter, actor, film producer and director. He is best known for writing sequels to the film Police Academy and directing the western Dollar for the Dead and action parody Loaded Weapon 1, both starring Emilio Estevez.
Maximum Overdrive is a 1986 American horror film written and directed by Stephen King. The film stars Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle, Laura Harrington, and Yeardley Smith. The screenplay was inspired by and loosely based on King's short story "Trucks", which was included in the author's first collection of short stories, Night Shift, and follows the events after all machines become sentient when Earth crosses the tail of a comet, initiating a world-wide killing spree.
Star in the Dust is a 1956 American Technicolor western film directed by Charles F. Haas and starring John Agar, Mamie Van Doren and Richard Boone. It was based on the 1953 Lee Leighton novel Law Man.
Irumbukkottai Murattu Singam is a 2010 Indian Tamil-language Western comedy film directed by Chimbu Deven, starring choreographer-turned-actor Raghava Lawrence in a double role alongside, Padmapriya, Lakshmi Rai, and Sandhya alongside an ensemble supporting cast including Nassar, Sai Kumar, and M. S. Baskar. The film is a "western adventure comedy film" based on cowboy stories, which is set in the 19th century paying homages to many western films. The film's shooting commenced in April 2009 and was released on 7 May 2010 to mixed reviews. The film comically highlights the current world politics.
