DB - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - Navajo Joe

Spaghetti Westerns are a very interesting sub genre of the western. They are typically filmed in Italy or somewhere in Europe, and often present negative depictions of the United States and its culture. Two excellent examples of “Spaghetti Westerns” are 1966 films The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and Navajo Joe. One characteristic of spaghetti westerns like these two is their overly violent depiction of the American west. In The Good, the Bad and the Ugly for example, we see a large amount of violence, often pointless or discussed as being pointless. The three main characters are all very violent, ruthless people. Tuco and Blondie’s half-hearted attempts to kill each other only serve to further imply that Americans were viewed in Europe as being desensitized to violence. Whereas in classic westerns the films utilize violence so that the hero can save the day from the bad guys and morality prevails in the end, spaghetti westerns depict violence as a form of showboating, as being something Americans deploy nonchalantly whenever they so desire to do so.

In Navajo Joe, we see violence again emerging as a very prominent issue Europe was concerned about in America. The very opening scenes are of a man shooting and scalping a Native American. The film also makes continuous allusions to the very real presence of racism at the time, and race is often very bluntly spoken above in negative ways. For example, at one point the townspeople don’t want to negotiate with Joe because of his race. These movies came at an important time for the American Civil Rights Movement, and reflected the heightened racial tensions of the era.

While in the classic American western, the masculine, powerful hero is meant to be revered and respected, in the spaghetti western genre Europeans make clear that they do not view the same qualities as being necessary in a hero. Whereas in classic westerns our values are typically held in very high esteem, spaghetti westerns tend to look at our culture through less favorable eyes and depict the United States as being a nation corrupted by greed and violence and racism.