Today I Learned (TIL)

Also a lot of them were shot in Italy, with Italian extras.

Fun fact: Sergio Leone would shoot his movies after the score had been composed.

He would shoot scenes with the soundtrack for the scene playing over loudspeakers.

Then, the dialogue and other sounds would be dubbed in.

This was how such perfect synchronization with the soundtrack was achieved.

EDIT 2: fun fact 2,

My favorite quote of Sergio Leone

When I was young, I believed in three things: Marxism, the redemptive power of cinema, and dynamite. Now I just believe in dynamite.

I was informed that Japanese people often referred to these as "Macaroni Westerns" which I think is even even better as it effectively also implies that they are cheaply made

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I like spaghetti westerns I like the way the boots are all reverbed out walking across the hardwood floor In fact, everything's got that big reverb sound

If I remember correctly it was supposed to be a little bit of an insult.

Kinda surprised you just ran into this, but only because I'm so damn old that I grew up watching this kind of thing on broadcast TV lol

Also, if you haven't, check out Eastwood in rawhide, back when he was a practical infant

All the music you associate with westerns came from the same composer. A friend played me an album of his music and all the now-tropey hits were there. I don't remember the composer's name, but it shouldn't be difficult to find. Just blew my mind that it was all one person.

How about that.

Worked with a dude who once talked fondly of the spaghetti westerns of his youth among a group of colleagues. He beamed, "You know why they were called 'spaghetti westerns'? Because they were sponsored by Ragu spaghetti sauce!"

One of the others in the group gently explained it was because they were made in Italy and that there were racist undertones in that name. All the color drained from his face and he got quiet for quite a while. I felt bad that we had witnessed the death of the joy he had in that memory. I hope he managed to recover eventually.

Spaghetti westerns are the best!

It's really interesting how early films like A Fistful of Dollars took inspiration from Japanese cinema but in return they had a great influence on Japanese culture and media going forward.

Check out the original Django movie, which kicked off the genre. For a while it was free on YouTube

Yay wholesome racism

My favorite takeaway from the last time I heard this was the assertation that if the same naming convention was transferred over to other genres and mediums, western comics like DC and Marvel would be Hamburger Shounens.

The proper name is Italian Westerns