Spaghetti western

The spaghetti western is a subgenre of Western films produced from the mid-1960s to 1970s; they were produced in Italy typically with low budgets, and were characterized by use of anti-heroes, an almost noir-ish sensibility, extreme violence, and a stark minimalist cinematography. The classic trilogy is the Dollars Trilogy by Sergio Leone, starring Clint Eastwood: A Fistful of Dollars (1964); For a Few Dollars More (1965); The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966).

While derided at the time ("spaghetti western" was a pejorative term used to mark the "inferior" Italian-produced westerns from the US-produced westerns), they have been significantly influential in re-takes on the Western genre, as for instance in Firefly, and on other SF westerns and, generally, darker SF.