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

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

spaghetti western

Based on her hit 2018 stage play of the same name, Harris’ film is a road movie meeting a spaghetti western, with a dash of “Set It Off” gone Tarantino.

From Salon ● May 19, 2026

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

This spring, the spaghetti western songslinger with an unmistakable baritone threw a word-of-mouth tour warm-up show at Yen Wor, hiring a West Seattle buddy to bring a stage and lighting into the karaoke bar.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 18, 2022

‘A Fistful of Dollars’ Running through Sept. 16, an 11-film salute to Clint Eastwood kicks off with the gruff-voiced, squinty-eyed star shooting up the screen in Sergio Leone’s classic 1967 spaghetti western.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2021

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