What I loved about Spaghetti westerns was...

[Rick]

the grittiness.

In Hollywood Westerns everyone looked like they just stopped out of the cleaners and a barber shop.
Every man was clean, and healthy looking and recently coiffed.
Totally artificial and unbelievable.
Suspension of disbelief not really possible for me (unless as a child that didnt know any better)
Even the buildings looked dilapidated in Spaghetti westerns unlike in Hollywood productions were everything was nice...

Not so in Spaghetti Westerns, the men looked real.
unshaven or even bearded.
Sweating and wearing sweat stained clothes.

Thats real for such a low resource time period.

 

[backlash]

My wife is addicted to shows where the people live on a horse farm.
Nobody works, is ever dirty, has a hair out of place and the makeup is perfect.
I hate those shows.

 

[Woody]

Agree, love the spaghetti westerns! Clint Eastwood seemed to carry some of that ‘realism’ into the movies he directed too. “Unforgiven”, “Outlaw Josie Wales” and “High Plains Drifter”. As well and the make me smile movie “Gran Torino”!

 

[Morgan101]

Count me in. I loved the Spaghetti Westerns. This will rile up the masses, but IMHO they were a lot better than anything John Wayne ever did. Realism is huge to me when I am watching a movie. If it isn't at least plausible it loses me. I have studied the Old West a lot more than most, which is a blessing and a curse. I love that period of history and all the characters, but when I watch a movie that is supposed to be "period" I find myself saying "That's not right. That's not what happened." How can you film a movie about Texas Rangers in Monument Valley Utah?

I am probably one of the few that liked the remake of True Grit with Jeff Bridges far more than the original because it is so much more realistic. I also liked the movie Wyatt Earp more than Tombstone because it was by far more historically accurate.

Woody, I would include Pale Rider to your list of Clint Eastwood Westerns, and the feel-good movie Trouble with the Curve. He plays the same character as he did in Gran Torino with a Baseball slant.

 

[Magpie]

Last year for my college film module we 'had to' study the western- best four months ever! Grew up with John Wayne etc on the tv but don't get to watch much anymore.
Tombstone, Wyatt Earp, (Val Kilmer as Doc Holiday was great), Appaloosa, Django, Magnificent Seven and The Long Riders are my favouroites- I know they aren't realistic, but movies are meant to be escapism, otherwise, they would be documentaries! Normally, like in the case of Doc Holiday, it prompts me to read up on them. I love anything with adventure.

 

[Cascadian]

My wife is addicted to shows where the people live on a horse farm.
Nobody works, is ever dirty, has a hair out of place and the makeup is perfect.
I hate those shows.

If your wife has not watched the Heartland series I definitely recommend it. I think there are 15 seasons making it the longest running family drama ever.

 

[backlash]

If your wife has not watched the Heartland series I definitely recommend it. I think there are 15 seasons making it the longest running family drama ever.

There is NO way I would tell her about that series.
She would watch it for weeks.
That said I would be surprised if she is not watching it now or has watched it.

 

[Magus]

I'm the same way about sci-fi, its supposedly 5 years after X-day and the hero is wearing clean clothes and driving a new, squeaky clean car. I see that crap and I move on.

 

[backlash]

On Bonanza the actors wore the same clothing on every show.
They did this so they could use scenes from different episodes and cut them into other scenes. Or use scenes that weren’t shown in one episode to fill in another episode if needed.

 

[Magus]

Star trek did that a LOT!

 

[ABR]

For those that have Paramount+, 1883 miniseries was, in my opinion, pretty realistic. Now it being hollywood and all there were a few parts/characters that I rolled my eyes at but overall I thought it was pretty period accurate and very well done.

 

[Morgan101]

For those that have Paramount+, 1883 miniseries was, in my opinion, pretty realistic. Now it being hollywood and all there were a few parts/characters that I rolled my eyes at but overall I thought it was pretty period accurate and very well done.

I only saw a couple of episodes, but I agree. I thought it was pretty realistic. Also showed some seamy sides of Western travel that no one ever thinks of; like checking for smallpox before allowing people to join the group.

 

[Cascadian]

Star trek did that a LOT!

True but Kirk never slept with the same alien twice. By the way Star Trek is credited with the first interracial kiss on tv. It was he and Ohura.

 

[UrbanHunter]

I love this scene from Good, Bad and the Ugly. The 1851 Colt navy Blondie is carrying is right, but the 38 long colt conversion of it came after the war. I liked it so much I made one that looks just like it.

 

[Wingnut]

Time to add my $.02 to this thread, since I just finished watching 'FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE' with Clint Eastwood & Lee Van Cleef... and Tubi just kicked out 'A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS' as my next option, lol. Let's face it, there are plenty of BAD Spaghetti Westerns out there, not even worth watching, but the famous trio of movies directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood, with STELLAR orchestral music composed by Ennio Morricone, THOSE are the cream of the crop, hands down. Today I started in the middle of the trio, but it doesn't matter, each story is separate...

Now, let's go with the first movie I mentioned: despite the bad dubbing, the lack of evident bullet wounds after certain shootouts, and the unrealistic sound effects like the bogus 'ricochets' during the hat-blasting duel, there is SO MUCH going for this flick that it boggles the mind, lol. You have an excellent story line or plot, good acting, a PRIMO soundtrack courtesy of Ennio Morricone, and gritty realism galore where the bad guys are concerned, lol. The casting for all the Sergio Leone flicks was awesome, the bandidos all looked the way bandidos SHOULD look, aye? I mean straight up, lol...

You have dusty & sweat-stained bad guys armed with pistols, rifles, knives, crossed bandoleros of ammunition, the whole nine yards... they haven't shaved, their clothes ain't exactly fresh from the nearest Chinese laundry, their teeth & gums show signs of prolonged dental neglect, and if you could smell their foul breath it would undoubtedly be FUNKY, lol. THAT realism offsets the bad dubbing, lack of evident bullet wounds, cheesy fake ricochets & other bogus sound effects, etc. The interplay between characters also sets these Sergio Leone flicks apart, especially the eye close-ups in shootouts, lol.

There's also the humor involved with Sergio Leone flicks, some of the lines are absolutely HILARIOUS!!! I laughed my @$$ off watching 'FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE'---and how GOOD were Clint & Lee Van Cleef in their roles?!? You'd be hard-pressed to find such classic acting in cheesed!ck modern Westerns, PFFFFFFT. Even the small fry were good, like the Chinese coolie sent by Clint to collect the Colonel's things and take 'em to the station... and how about 'The Prophet?' That scene with a passing train rattling the shack was surely the inspiration for a similar scene in 'THE BLUES BROTHERS.'

Anyway, I'm now watching 'A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS' on the curved screen, and I'm enjoying the heck out of it... I won't watch the final flick of the trio, not enough time for that tonight, but these two will serve for the present. The orchestral music composed by Ennio Morricone is reason enough to watch these Sergio Leone flicks, the ARTISTRY behind the music and the film direction just can't be found in other Spaghetti Westerns, 10-4? Hell, it's RARELY found in American Westerns, even those directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne... hard to beat Ennio Morricone on the soundtrack, lol.

THAT'S MY $.02 FOR NOW, I WANNA WATCH THIS FIRST LEONE FLICK WITHOUT ANY DISTRACTIONS, LOL.

 

[Camalot]

I concur. Most spaghetti westerns are bad. Very bad. lol

 

[Wingnut]

I remember one, all it showed was a group of outlaws on horseback, riding back and forth in slow motion... I put up with that for about 5 minutes, then moved on to something else.

 

[Morgan101]

I concur. Most spaghetti westerns are bad. Very bad. lol

They came at a time when the genre was very popular. Clint Eastwood et al made the really good ones, then everybody jumped on the band wagon to make money. Around the same era (maybe a little earlier) we were bombarded with all the spy movies when James Bond was so popular.

When Hollywood (movie makers in general) finds a format that works, they wear it out like a rented mule.

 

[Camalot]

They came at a time when the genre was very popular. Clint Eastwood et al made the really good ones, then everybody jumped on the band wagon to make money. Around the same era (maybe a little earlier) we were bombarded with all the spy movies when James Bond was so popular.

When Hollywood (movie makers in general) finds a format that works, they wear it out like a rented mule.

"they wear it out like a rented mule"

No truer words ever spoken.

 

[SoJer]

...make me smile movie “Gran Torino”!

My take on that one 'classic scene' for those of ya'll 'Up in the Sticks'...

jd

 

[Supervisor42]

What I loved about Spaghetti westerns was...​

Every ricochet made one of these same sounds:
"PEEEerrreeeee!"

1:07 was probably the one most often used.
I have done a lot of shooting, and have never heard a single one of them.

 

[sonya123]

I loved those!!
Clint Eastwood, wow, what a great actor!

 

[Tacitus]

The Danish Symphony Orchestra did some good movie theme performances of these (and others).

 

[Tacitus]

Love these.




Different Symphony...just the Ecstasy of Gold part.

 

[Supervisor42]

Love these.

Thank you so much for posting the Danish orchestra!
I totally love them!
BTW, if you listen to any Modelo commercial, they totally ripped off the awesome performance of their wonderful soprano in that performance.
See if this sounds familiar :30 - 1:08...

 

[Hardcalibres]

Some of the lines were so good they constitute life advice.



"When you have to shoot......shoot....don't talk.

 

[Spikedriver]

What I loved about Spaghetti westerns was...​

Every ricochet made one of these same sounds:
"PEEEerrreeeee!"

1:07 was probably the one most often used.
I have done a lot of shooting, and have never heard a single one of them.

I've only heard something similar once. I was about 8 or 9 years old, shooting my old Crosman 760 pellet gun at boulders in the creek on my dad's farm. One of them ricocheted off that granite and made a much quieter version of that sound. It was almost more of a hissing noise...

 

[Morgan101]

This was not a Spaghetti Western, but a more recent entry into the genre. Has anybody seen the movie Appaloosa?

It was released in 2008, based on the book written by Robert B, Parker. Terrific book, and the movie was very faithful. Great cast, and has become one of my all-time favorites. If you haven't seen it and you like Westerns I would highly recommend it.

 

[INresponse]

I love the spaghetti westerns, although in the ones that were filmed in multiple languages it is a bit annoying to hear words that are dubbed in and don't match the actors mouth. Clint Eastwood would say his lines in English and some characters said their lines in Spanish (or maybe Italian) and depending on where the films were shown the local language was dubbed into the various final films.
I also enjoyed the Tom Selleck westerns. There were definitely dirty and tattered clothes in Quigley Down Under, and parts of Monte Walsh and Crossfire Trail, and The Sackets and The Shadow Riders had some realistic looking characters and filthy clothing.