The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly/ Navajo Joe BD

The spaghetti westerns are very different films compared to the original western films. They do not possess the same view of American society that the original western have because they are made by European directors instead of Americans. The films are made based on how others view American society, not how Americans view themselves which in turn makes the characters have different qualities, mainly the alpha male cowboy. The alpha male is not the great hero that he is portrayed to be in American westerns; instead he has a much more villainous sense to him. He is not necessarily doing the right thing; he is simply more just than the villain. For example, in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Blondie is going from town to town scamming the marshal into paying the reward for the outlaw Tuco and then shooting his rope before he is hanged in order to use him again to gain more money somewhere else. However, this is not as bad as the hired killer Angle Eyes who will kill anyone as he is paid to do so.

Also in spaghetti westerns, there is a greater use of minorities as others in the films than there is in American westerns. Both The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and Navajo Joe are filled with minority characters, with Navajo Joe even having the main role be the portrayal of a Native American. However, these characters are only there in order to make a comment on American culture toward immigrants and minorities. In The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Tuco is a Hispanic character that is exploited by Blondie in order to obtain a reward. Even though he is freed each time, it is showing how Americans are thought to use minorities for their own personal gain, even at that point in history. In Navajo Jo even though the main character is Native American, he is stilled looked at as inferior to white men. He is told that he would not be allowed to be sheriff because he is an Indian, even though he is the only character that will be able to stop Duncan and save the town. Through this, Europeans are stating that Americans are much less tolerant towards minorities than they themselves are.