Navajo Joe/ Good Bad And Ugly BCG

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly and Navajo Joe are defined as spaghetti westerns, as they were filmed across Europe, mostly throughout the likes of Spain and prominently Italy. These films differ from the classic western because of their perspective. The classic western focuses on the white alpha-male character, because these films were produced in America by Americans who knew the sentiment of the American public. Characters seen as the ‘other’ were mostly foreigners and women, playing miniscule roles in the classic western. It is interesting to point out that American made westerns were critical of capitalism and the gain of excessive money, while spaghetti westerns were based on the ideas of money and greed.

The spaghetti western was shot on locations outside of America, by foreign directors with through their own perspective of America and westerns. These two films revolve around the theme of money and greed. The most prominent example was when Navajo Joe focuses on the monetary benefit of killing the outlaws rather than the justice he can bring them after killing his wife and tribe. Had 3:10 to Yuma been a spaghetti western instead of American made; perhaps Dan Evans would have taken the money to help Ben Wade rather than the morally right thing to do and bring him to the train station so he could be brought to jail.

The European perspective for violence and greed of Americans comes from themes, events, and experiences that Europeans had heard, or seen of Americans. The stereotyping begins with the shoot-em-up Chicago gangsters, and follows with both World Wars, and the Marshall Plan. The Marshall Plan was an economic stimulus package post WWII that the US threw at Europe to rebuild rather than humanitarian aid or materials. So if you had experienced the US for yourself, and your only experiences of Americans were violence and money, a film director would focus on these aspects in making a western film.

Europeans countries have generally been more liberal in terms of views on gender and ethnicity. There was no need for radical gender or racial movements for equality in Europe during the 1960’s because they already had improved rights. So the fact that the other, as seen as Navajo Joe, is not only the main character, but also the one who eventually saves the town full of white people, shouldn’t be surprising. However, with the Hispanic character being labeled as “the Ugly” in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly this is a direct criticism of how Americans felt regarding immigrants.