Spaghetti Westerns & American Myth: The Wild West Through Italian Eyes

Image: Clint Eastwood in a still from the Dollars Trilogy, 1966. Article by Katrina Funk, BA Media Studies & History, w/ Anthropology minor. The Collector – October 4, 2025.

Spaghetti Western refers to a subgenre of Western films that emerged in the 1960s. These films, which utilized the themes of American Westerns, were Italian-made, low-budget, and filmed in Europe. Italian Westerns broke from the tradition of American Westerns, which were family-friendly, featuring battles between good and evil, with good always prevailing. Spaghetti Westerns blurred the lines between good and evil. These films depicted an American West, not as a place of heroes but as a place of violence, a portrayal more aligned with the West’s true history. […]

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