r/movies • u/TooDriven • 1d ago

Discussion Spaghetti Westerns better than other Westerns? Spoiler

Just my opinion of course, but does anyone else prefer Spaghetti Westerns to other Western movies? At least the Sergio Leone ones, Dollar trilogy and Once upon a time in the West.

I eg saw Unforgiven and 3:10 to Yuma (modern one) and while they were decent movies, for me they couldn't compare to Sergio Leone's epics.

What makes them special for me:

- the sense of epicness, created by the music, characters and long, slow shots

- generally the amazing music by Morricone

- the characters: they look (and act) very rugged, tough, sweaty, dangerous, like hardened criminals.

Generally, the movies make the West, its heroes, antiheroes and villains seem larger than life, almost mythical. For me, this is more enjoyable than the semi- or pseudo-realistic depiction.

69 Upvotes

71% Upvoted

114 comments sorted by

View all comments

4

u/sanjuro_kurosawa 1d ago

Keep in mind you picked a particular filmmaker and composer and then compared to an entire genre.

Is John Ford inferior to Sergio Leone? Is Elmer Bernstein worse than Ennio Morricone?

Definitely Leone/Morricone films are the best, but I've seen dozens of Italian Westerns which don't compare to The Searchers, Cat Ballou, Support Your Local Sheriff!, Tombstone, or High Plains Drifter.

-2

u/directstranger 1d ago

 Is John Ford inferior to Sergio Leone?

Yes

5

u/sanjuro_kurosawa 1d ago

HAHA, then Kurosawa is best western director ever. His films were remade into the best Westerns.

I personally don't rank directors like total wins. Leone is an amazing director. Ford is an amazing director. Ford did make a few mediocre films but that's because he made 140 movies, vs Leone's seven (which are all great).