The Good , the Bad and the Ugly - JM

After the 1960’s the classic western became less popular as it made room for new types of westerns such as the spaghetti western. Navajo Joe and The Good the Bad and the Ugly exhibit the difference between the classic western and revised version: the spaghetti western.

The opening scene of Navajo Joe presents an Indian village under attack by outlaws. The cries from children, women and men occupy your hearing. During the scene a woman is killed and he tries to scalp her. This opening scene fulfills one of the first elements of spaghetti westerns which are excessive violence. Joe returns to his village only to be welcomed by dead bodies and mayhem. He responds by trailing Duncan and his men on a quest to achieve revenge. It is here that Navajo Joe establishes himself as the alpha male. This is substantially different from classic westerns as he is an Indian, the alpha males common enemy. Classic westerns could not live on because they fuels inequality and discrimination in a society that was moving away from that. Navajo Joe presents a new type of hero for viewers to identify with, regardless of his skin tone. The film is filmed after the establishment of the equal pay act and the civil rights act which legally freed the minorities in America, regardless of whether or not society had to become accustomed to it.

The Good the Bad and the Ugly is also a very violent film which fulfills the characteristics of the spaghetti western. Blondie, the alpha male cowboy has unfaithful sidekicks who he must trick in order to survive and receive his share of gold. Blondie is not loyal to them as they are not loyal to him. As an alpha male with no loyal sidekicks, Blondie is in a unique situation which forces him to look out for himself and no one else. This film shows the negative view of Italy about the United States in particular their greed. The films is a suitable representation of the increase in violent in westerns with films that lacked a hero who upheld the rights and stability of a town.

Spaghetti Westerns are more violent and revised from the classic western because they are a representation on the Italian view of Americans.

The Gunfight at the OK Corral-BS

In the film The Gunfight at the OK Corral, the two main characters, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday display traits of an alpha male cowboy. However, Doc is more of a sidekick to Wyatt because of many reasons. Doc is a more emotional character, a trait that is more often associated with female characters. Next to Wyatt he is viewed weaker because Wyatt is both more physically and mentally stronger. Doc falls victim to gambling and drinking and he is known for killing and being an outlaw in the towns. On the other hand, Wyatt takes his responsibilities of town marshal and his family seriously. Doc is verbally and physically abusive to his love interest Kate and finds himself more focused on settling old debts rather than working on his relationships.

Although Doc seems like a bad sidekick to Wyatt, he remains loyal to him and refrains from killing Ringo because Wyatt did not want him to. He also comes to Wyatt's side in the big fight and recognizes that Wyatt is a better person that he was. I think that Doc tries to be an alpha male but ultimately fails because he cannot live up to Wyatt. I believe he has respect for Wyatt and tries to model his life after his, but fails because he live by a different moral code. Doc can be considered Wyatt's sidekick because of his loyalty and respect for Wyatt and his desire to stand by Wyatt's side until the very end.

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly/Navajo Joe-MR

Spaghetti Westerns, a sub- genre that came to existence in the 1960's, were filmed in Europe during the 1960's. These films were insightful views of the American life, as the films critisized many aspects of American life. The film, Navajo Joe and The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, are perfect examples of Spaghetti Westerns, that show the European view of American Life. The Good, The Bad, The Ugly was filmed in 1966, and contrasts many aspects of the classic western film. Classic Westerns featrue one alpha male cowboy, whereas this film features three powerful men that can arguably be classified as alphas. The classic western also follows a formula where the shootout is the ultimate decider of the films outcome. The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, features extreme violent throughout the film, clearly showing a European distaste for the advocacy of violence in the United States. The film, Navajo Joe, features many of the same aspects as the Good, the Bad, the Ugly. Navajo Joe, features two alpha male cowboys, a violent plot, and a unique perspective of American Racism. Joe, a native american, is consitently belittled by the white folks in the film, despite being a clear alpha male. Despite the hatred directed towards him, he still proceeds to save the people that are consitently ungrateful for his help. The European spaghetti western proved to be a unique view of the American Values at the time.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly/Navajo Joe-KO

Through the 50s and 60s, the classic Western cowboy movie began to die out as the spaghetti Western took its place at the top. In the last decade of Westerns, the films The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and Navajo Joe depict are a product of the spaghetti Westerns that reflect Americans changing and questioning of previous held values.

In The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, it starts with a bang. Literally. The rolling credits before the opening scene alone foreshadow and set the tone for the rest of the film as it blast with gunshots. The movie begins with violence and keeps that steady pace throughout the film as Blondie, Tuco, and Angel Eyes go in search for their treasure and will go through any means to find it, even stabbing one another in the back. This greed drives each one to result to violence, which takes up the majority of the film with gunshots and shootouts overpowering words and conversations. Unlike classic Western films where the violent scenes are hyped up to be the climax, the spaghetti Westerns has violence in nearly every scene. For example, the first character to speak in this film does not do so until about eleven minutes into the film. And the conversation only lasts a minute or so until he and his son are shot dead by Angel Eyes, who then goes on to shoot the man who paid him to kill the first one. As time wore on, the Western film genre began to be more violent with the spaghetti films and no longer depicted heroes who upheld the American ideals but were violent, greedy, petty criminals who ruthlessly murdered others. Made in 1966 at the end of the Western film genre, the film reveals the conscience of Americans during the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War was sensitizing Americans to the issues of U.S. imperialism and warfare against non-white people, and comparisons can be made between American patriotism and the violence atmosphere of the cinematic Western. This picture of excessive and unnecessary violence can be further seen in the spaghetti Western Navajo Joe.

Following in step with the previously mentioned film, Navajo Joe opens with an Indian village being attacked by outlaws as one of them kills a woman and proceeds to scalp her. The credits begin to roll with the Wild West music accompanied by the screams of the Native Americans; it is clearly scene that the film has fulfilled the spaghetti Western film characteristic of excessive violence (not to mention what influenced Tarantino). When Joe finds his tribe attacked and massacred, he trails Duncan and his men and sets off on his rampage of revenge that, as expected of a spaghetti Western, packs the film with violence. Very different from the classic Western film, the Native American Joe is the heroic figure who has to defeat the white American outlaws for justice. In the 60s, America had already begun to shed light on the issue of racism, which destroyed the future for classic Westerns. The Western genre did not survive because it was one of the most racist genres of the century. Like The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, this film was also made in 1966 and dealt with many of the same issues of the backlash of the Vietnam War and the change of American views. It is the product of the civil rights movement of the postwar era that killed the genre as filmmakers and Americans began to stray from and question the classic Western film formula, which was undignified violence against “others” mainly Native Americans.

Through excessive violence and reversal of roles, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and Navajo Joe represent the spaghetti Western film genre and America’s progress towards being more politically sensitive and correct.

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly/ Navajo Joe-BS

Spaghetti Western, also known as Italo-Western, is a nickname for a broad sub-genre of Western film that emerged in the mid-1960s, so named because most were produced and directed by Italians. In the film Navajo Joe, the opening scene is of a massacred Indian village. The outlaw, Duncan finds his men falling victim to a solitary rider, Navajo Joe. The main character in this movie is a Native America which is different from the classic westerns that depict the alpha male as a white cowboy. Joe saves two prostitutes who have overheard Duncan plot to steal a train full of money belonging to the bank. Spaghettic Westerns show the true greed of cowboys by the main plot in both Navajo Joe and The Good, the Bad, the Ugly surrounded on the idea of money and the pursuit of being rich. The two main characters in The Good, the Bad, the Ugly Tuco and Blondie team up to scam towns into thinking they have caught a wanted man, Tuco, and Blondie stands on the outskirts of the town after collecting the reward and shoots down Tuco before he is able to be hung. Also, after Tuco finds out of a buried teasure he does whatever is in his power to get to the money and become a rich man. The Italians seem to judge Americans to be greedy and money driven. We do whatever it takes to be rich and will show no mercry to anyone who stands in the way.

The Good the Bad and the Ugly / Navajo Joe - DP

The spagetti western differs from the prototypical western in that it does not exprss American ideas per say, but express the wrongs and imperfections of American society.  The spagetti westerns were filimed in Europe in the 1960's, and show the outsider's view on America.  The films draw great attention with extrmely famous actors such as Eastwood and Reynolds, and they were chosen to showcase these types of films.  Being made in the heat of the civil rights movement, the spagetti westerns focused on the internal trouble of the United States, seen from a foriegn point of view.

In the spagetti westerns racism  comes to te forefront.  Navajo Joe is a film that carries a rich anti-racism theme.  Joe, being a Navajo, expresses that all people are equal.  He is the one who is superior to the white men around, and he ends up being more of an American that all of the white-folk.  His ancestors lived in the Americas for years, and by expressing this, I sends the message to the viewers that people from all walks of life are equals.  The fact that the alpha male comes from the category of "other" shows the chane in thought during the time the film was made.  The spagetti westerns also portray America as unreasonably volence and brutal.  The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and Navajo Joe display a very intense amount of bloodshed and violence.  Tuco is excessively tortured in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, and pretty much everyone else inthe film kills without thought and remorse.  The scalping and pillaging in Navajo Joe note the foriegn view that the United States promotes killing as first-resort, not a last-resort.  There is also no coincidence the filsm were made during the Vietnam War, a war that was said to be pointless and only for the sake of bloodshed.  This expressed the American love for violence an lack of diplomacy.  All in all the spagetti westerns show the flaws in American society, which links directly to the foriegn view that America is a "brute" country.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly/ Navajo Joe - RS

The Spaghetti Western is an Italian based western that emerged within the mid-1960's. The teams that created these films were usually made up of people from Italian and Spanish descents. Additionally, in order to gain quick attraction, big stars such as The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly actor, Clint Eastwood, were cast. The major themes in these films deals with the Mexican Revolution and additionally were sometimes filmed in Mexico in order for the plot to be as realistic as possible. This differs from the Classic Western, mostly because the "other" in the Classic Western is usually of Indian decent, where as in the Spaghetti Western is either of Italian or Mexican heritage.

In The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly the plot is of a deserted "ghost-like" town during the Civil War. Clint Eastwood plays a strong alpha male who can take his already lit cigar and use it to light a cannon, causing an outburst of fighting, while he just takes the backseat. The rest of the cast is of Italian and Mexican decent, as shown by accents as well as facial hair. On a race to find the fortune, Blondie (the good), Angel Eyes (the bad), and Tuco (the ugly) search to find the gold hidden in a cemetery, to where they later have a Mexican standoff before drawing their guns.

In Navajo Joe, Burt Reynolds (another famous American actor in a Spaghetti Western), plays Joe, who is on a mission to find the other bandits that killed his group. This film, which was filmed in Spain, shows Joe reclaiming his dignity; after being put down by the towns people. Joe fights Duncan to the death although he had just been shot by a hidden gun that Duncan had on him. After this, Joe sends the horse he was using back to the town in order to prove to the towns folk, that he is not weak and all in all a truthful person. The staring actors in addition to the director and producer of this film, were mostly all either Italian or of Mexican nationality.