spaghetti western

American  

noun

Informal.

1. a low-budget western movie shot in Italy or Spain, usually with Italian actors and an American star.

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spaghetti western British  

noun

1. a cowboy film about the American West made, esp by an Italian director, in Europe

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Etymology

Origin of spaghetti western

First recorded in 1965–70

Example Sentences

West Seattle’s foremost purveyor of alt-country noir is back with another scintillating set of spaghetti western ditties marked by Amaker’s unmistakable baritone, which is equal parts folksy and sinister.

From Seattle Times • Jan. 19, 2024

OK, but “Birdman” over Sergio Leone’s spaghetti western “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”?

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 16, 2023

The daughter is pop '80s/'90s, the grandmother, who tells tall tales as many grandmothers do, is a spaghetti western, and the mother, who is still traumatized by Iran, is a neorealist Kiarostami film.

From Salon • Oct. 26, 2023

A trio of revenge plots engulfs Roman Perfilyev’s genre-bending Ukrainian samurai spaghetti western.

From New York Times • Jun. 16, 2023

“I told them, man, that’s like 1940s, 1950s spaghetti western stuff.”

From New York Times • Oct. 29, 2021