Editing The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (section)

=== Impact on Western genre ===
While the ''Dollars Trilogy'' was not the beginning of the so-called [[Spaghetti Western]] cycle in Italy, many in the US saw it as the beginning of an Italian invasion of the most recognisably American film genre. [[Christopher Frayling]] argues that, on the whole, Americans had become "bored with an exhausted Hollywood genre". He notes that [[Pauline Kael]], for example, had appreciated how non-American films of the time "could exploit the conventions of the Western genre, while debunking its morality". Along with [[Peter Bondanella]] and others, Frayling argues that such [[Revisionist Western|revisionism]] was the key to Leone's success and, to some degree, to that of the Spaghetti Western genre as a whole.{{sfn|Frayling|2006|pp=39–40, 121–137}} ''The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'', like the later ''[[Once Upon A Time In The West]]'', belongs to multiple Western sub-genres: Epic Western, Outlaw (Gunfighter) Film, Revisionist Western and Spaghetti Western.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-v20333 |last=German |first=Yuri |title=The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) |work=AllMovie |access-date=1 April 2022 |archive-date=1 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220401070030/https://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-v20333 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.allmovie.com/movie/once-upon-a-time-in-the-west-v36331 |last=Bozzola |first=Lucia |title=Once Upon A Time In The West (1968) |work=AllMovie |access-date=1 April 2022 |archive-date=1 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220401065946/https://www.allmovie.com/movie/once-upon-a-time-in-the-west-v36331 |url-status=live }}</ref>

''The Good, The Bad and The Ugly'' has been called the definitive Spaghetti Western – colloquially, these are Westerns produced and directed by Italians, often in collaboration with other European countries, especially Spain and West Germany. The name 'Spaghetti Western' originally was a pejorative term, given by foreign critics to these films because they thought they were inferior to American westerns.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone |url=https://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/The_Spaghetti_Westerns_of_Sergio_Leone |website=The Spaghetti Western Database |access-date=3 March 2020 |archive-date=21 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161021120014/https://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/The_Spaghetti_Westerns_of_Sergio_Leone |url-status=live }}</ref> Most of the films were made with low budgets, but several still managed to be innovative and artistic, although at the time they did not get much recognition, even in Europe.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.italymagazine.com/featured-story/spaghetti-westerns-inspire-modern-music|title=Spaghetti Westerns Inspire Modern Music|date=26 April 2011|website=Italy Magazine|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150506152233/http://www.italymagazine.com/featured-story/spaghetti-westerns-inspire-modern-music|archive-date=6 May 2015|url-status=live|access-date=8 December 2020}}</ref> The genre is unmistakably a Catholic genre, with a visual style strongly influenced by the Catholic iconography of, for instance, the crucifixion or the last supper.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/a-fistful-of-spaghetti-1.255879|title=A fistful of spaghetti|date=15 March 2000|first=Christopher |last=Frayling|newspaper=[[The Irish Times]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201208002921/https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/a-fistful-of-spaghetti-1.255879|archive-date=8 December 2020|url-status=live|access-date=8 December 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.culturematters.org.uk/index.php/arts/films/item/2330-once-upon-a-time-this-west-was-full-of-radicals-sergio-leone-revolution-and-religion|title=Once Upon a Time this West was full of Radicals: Sergio Leone, Revolution and Religion|date=19 June 2016|first=James|last=Crossley|website=Culture Matters|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201208003058/https://www.culturematters.org.uk/index.php/arts/films/item/2330-once-upon-a-time-this-west-was-full-of-radicals-sergio-leone-revolution-and-religion|archive-date=8 December 2020|url-status=live|access-date=8 December 2020}}</ref> The outdoor scenes of many Spaghetti Westerns, especially those with a relatively higher budget, were shot in Spain, in particular the [[Tabernas]] desert of Almería and [[Colmenar Viejo]] and [[Hoyo de Manzanares]]. In Italy, the region of [[Lazio]] was a favourite location.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2014/03/02/283559225/hi-ho-spaniard-an-iberian-desert-with-spaghetti-western-roots|title=Hi Ho Spaniard! An Iberian Desert With Spaghetti Western Roots|date=9 March 2014|website=[[NPR]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200918181216/https://www.npr.org/2014/03/02/283559225/hi-ho-spaniard-an-iberian-desert-with-spaghetti-western-roots|archive-date=18 September 2020|url-status=live|access-date=8 December 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3Q1SAAAAQBAJ|title=Actors of the Spaghetti Westerns|date=20 January 2012|first=James |last=Prickette|publisher=Xlibris Corporation |isbn=9781469144290|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201208003730/https://books.google.com/books?id=3Q1SAAAAQBAJ|archive-date=8 December 2020|url-status=live|access-date=8 December 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://elpais.com/ccaa/2019/09/20/madrid/1568967359_528887.html|language=es|trans-title=When Clint Eastwood killed outlaws in the mountains of Madrid|title=Cuando Clint Eastwood mataba forajidos en la sierra de Madrid|date=21 September 2019|first=Miguel Angel |last=Medina|website=[[El País]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201208003835/https://elpais.com/ccaa/2019/09/20/madrid/1568967359_528887.html|archive-date=8 December 2020|url-status=live|access-date=8 December 2020}}</ref>

The genre expanded and became an international sensation with the success of Sergio Leone's ''[[A Fistful of Dollars]]'', an adaptation of Akira Kurosawa's samurai film ''[[Yojimbo]]''. But a handful of westerns were made in Italy before Leone redefined the genre, and the Italians were not the first to make westerns in Europe in the sixties. But it was Leone who defined the look and attitude of the genre with his first western and the two that soon were to follow: ''[[For a Few Dollars More]]'' and ''The Good, the Bad and the Ugly''. Together these films are called the [[Dollars Trilogy]]. Leone's portrayal of the west, in the latter, was not concerned with ideas of the frontier or good vs. evil but rather interested in how the world is unmistakably more complicated than that, and how the western world is one of kill or be killed. These films featured knifings, beatings, shootouts, or other violent action every five to ten minutes. "The issue of morality belongs to the American western," explains Italian director Ferdinando Baldi. "The violence in our movies is more gratuitous than in American films. There was very little morality because often the protagonist was a bad guy." Eastwood's character is a violent and ruthless killer who murders opponents for fun and profit. Behind his cold and stony stare is a cynical mind powered by a dubious morality. Unlike earlier cowboy heroes, Eastwood's character constantly smokes a small cigar and hardly ever shaves. He wears a flat-topped hat and Mexican poncho instead of more traditional western costuming. He never introduces himself when he meets anyone, and nobody ever asks his name. Furthermore, Spaghetti Westerns redefined the western genre to fit the everchanging times of the 1960s and '70s. Rather than portraying the traditional mythic West as an exotic and beautiful land of opportunity, hope, and redemption, they depicted a desolate and forsaken West. In these violent and troubled times, Spaghetti Westerns, with their antiheroes, ambiguous morals, brutality, and anti-Establishment themes, resonated with audiences. The film's gratuitous violence, surrealistic style, gloomy look, and eerie sound captured the era's melancholy. It is this new approach to the genre that defined the revisionist western of the late '70s and early '80s; a movement started by this moral ambiguity of the Spaghetti Westerns, as well as a westerns placement in the context of historical events; both attributes defined and set by ''The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Aquila |first1=Richard |title=The Sagebrush Trail: Western Movies and Twentieth-Century America |date=2015 |publisher=University of Arizona Press |location=Tucson, Arizona |jstor=j.ctt183gxp6.12 |isbn=978-0816531547 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/j.ctt183gxp6.12.pdf |access-date=3 March 2020}}</ref>

These films have a recognisable style. With grandiose wide shots and close-ups that peered into the eyes and souls of the characters, ''The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly'', had the defining cinematographic techniques of the Spaghetti Western. This was Leone's signature technique, using long drawn shots interspersed with extreme close-ups that build tension, as well as develop characters. However, Leone's movies were not just influenced by style. As Quentin Tarantino notes:
<blockquote> There was also realism to them: those shitty Mexican towns, the little shacks&nbsp;— a bit bigger to accommodate the camera&nbsp;— all the plates they put the beans on, the big wooden spoons. The films were so realistic, which had always seemed to be missing in the westerns of the 1930s, '40s, and '50s, in the brutality and the different shades of grey and black. Leone found an even darker black and off-white. There is realism in Leone's presentation of the Civil War in ''The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'' that was missing from all the Civil War movies that happened before him. Leone's film, and the genre that he defined within it, shows a west that is more violent, less talky, more complex, more theatrical, and just overall more iconic through the use of music, appearing operatic as the music is an illustrative ingredient of the narrative.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Frayling |first1=Christopher |title=Shooting Star |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/06/quentin-tarantino-on-how-spaghetti-westerns-shaped-modern-cinema/ |website=The Spectator|date=1 June 2019 |access-date=3 March 2020 |archive-date=14 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201114150703/https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/shooting-star |url-status=live }}</ref></blockquote>

With a greater sense of operatic violence than their American cousins, the cycle of spaghetti westerns lasted just a few years, but it has been said to have rewritten the genre.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Towlson |first1=Jon |title=10 great spaghetti westerns |url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-great-spaghetti-westerns |website=BFI |date=3 April 2018 |access-date=3 March 2020 |archive-date=14 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201114150706/https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/lists/10-great-spaghetti-westerns |url-status=live }}</ref>