spagetti or macaroni
Which is the cheesiest? The answer is pretty obvious, but let's take a close look. "Spaghetti Westerns," as their called, are a genre of western films, that have been created or filmed in Italy and are meant to portray the "Wild West" of America. "Macaroni Westerns," as I'll call them, make up the traditional western genre, made in the United States. Let's take a look at the similarities and differences of these genres, and at two films in particular that represent each genre; The Good the Bad and the Ugly(1966) and Rio Bravo(1959), which most critics will agree, are great examples of each genre. Let's start with the most obvious aspect that differs in the two genres. "Macaroni Westerns" are the cheesiest. These films have are pure cheese. I can barely sit through one of them. They have the typical characters; the hero(s), the bad guy(s), the fair maiden, and the quirky sidekick(s). These characters spout out cheesy lines, demonstrating how good or how bad they are, but they language always remains basically clean. In the Spaghetti Westerns, the language is a lot more diverse(lots of cussing). This is because each of these genres play to a different audience.
Let's take a look at the aforementioned films in terms of plot, framing, editing, sound and cinematography. The plot in Rio Bravo is your typical American western. It is a "conflict between civilized order and the lawless frontier."(Bordwell/Thompson p.56) We have our heros and bad guys laid out before us in black and white. "Colorado" is the typical hero who tries to stay out of the conflict and then eventually sides with civilized order. "Dude" is another hero who fallows the same path. Our bad guys are made obvious from the early moments of the film by means of a murder. There isn't much to wonder about. There are also many cliches that we need to discuss. First of all, let's talk about the names and nick-names. In Rio Bravo, all of the heros have "clever" little names. We have Chance, Colorado, Dude, and Stumpy. We see these type of names show up in The Good the Bad and the Ugly. In this film we have, Blondie, Angel Eyes, and Shorty(not present very long). Another cliche is the "bad guy gets shot and falls from high above the ground to his death." In both films we see this play true as bad guys fall from rafters and buildings. Let's now move to lighting. This is an area where we see more major differences between the two films. Rio Bravo uses the traditional three light system of character lighting. There is the key light, the fill light and the back light. This creates full and soft features for the characters. The Good the Bad and The Ugly is a far throw from this style. In most of the scenes there is only one major light source.(key light) There is usually a strong key light, no back light, and very little, if any, fill light. This makes for dark shadows and sharp features. This creates very dramatic lighting for the scenes. Everything seems more intense and powerful. In The Good the Bad and the Ugly, everything isn't laid out for us from the beginning. Our "good guy" isn't revealed till quite a ways into the film. In this film, we get a pretty good idea who the worst guy is, but we are left to constantly wonder where one of the main characters st
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1420
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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