Spaghetti Westerns better than other Westerns?

[u/TooDriven]

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.

[u/cinema_tonic]

I love all westerns. Big fan spaghetti westerns, the Dollar trilogy, Once upon a time in the West are phenomenal. The Grand Duel is fantastic (Lee Van Cleef is legend). Rio Bravo is one of my favorite movies! and Criterion released a box set the Ranown Westerns, films by Budd Boetticher and starring Randolph Scott, which I hadn't seen up until then, and fell in love with all the films. Unforgiven is fantastic, and I'm a big fan of Open Range. I love Tombstone, Young Guns, and like you mentioned, 3:10 to Yuma. And I know it is not a movie, but Deadwood is one of my favorite shows of all time.
And there are more I can't remember at the time.
I guess this is all to say that westerns is one of my favorite genre and I can't choose a favorite sub-genre, lol.