‘Spaghetti Western’ is a (pejorative) term for a certain genre of films that became popular withe a wide audience in the late 1960s. They are western films made by Italians. The most famous of these Italian filmmakers are undoubtedly Sergio Leone, who introduced an epic historical dimension with Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) and Sergio Corbucci, the master of exaggerated violence, whose films later became a major inspiration for filmmaker Quentin Tarantino. Many Spaghetti Westerns have remained in the collective memory because of the music of maestro Ennio Morricone. 

The original American westerns (from the first half of the 20th century) glorify the old, preindustrial world, the so-called Wild West. The films were made to promote American values and ideals and build up support for the policy carried out by the government. These westerns glorify the story of American expansion. They idealize the conquering of the ‘wilderness’ by ‘civilization’. The indigenous Americans are often negatively portrayed (as villains or bandits), whereas the settlers (the cowboys, the occupiers) are presented as pioneers and heroes. Women usually are depicted indoors as one-dimensional role models in relation to a man (as a wife, widow or prostitute).

The Spaghetti Westerns present a completely different picture of the so-called Wild West. Viewers are confronted with a story that is likely to be cynical, grim and extremely violent. The Italian filmmakers provide a cynical perspective on American history and the role of the various parties in the expansionist conflict, and conflict in general. Instead of idealizing violence, they use exaggeration to reveal its horror.

“Like avatars of chaos, like saboteurs, like children openly playing with their obsessions, sensually disturbed, half wolf and half angel, neither good nor bad, ethical but not moralistic, critical of (their own) destructive civilization but also like pirates driven by an amour fou for everything that generates life, the performers in Spaghetti Western unleash poetic terror on each other and their audience." – Aurelie Di Marino, after Hakim Bey