New Hollywood vs Spaghetti Western
Spaghetti Western arose as a reaction against New Hollywood — European antihero revisionism paralleling US genre subversion.
New Hollywood
A late-1960s–70s American movement of auteur-driven films using naturalistic location shooting, available light, long lenses, and grainy realism to portray a darker, ambiguous America.
- Naturalistic location shooting over studio polish
- Available and motivated light, including bold underexposed low-key interiors
- Long telephoto lenses and zooms compressing crowded, observational space
- Grainy, sometimes flashed film stock with a muted, earthy 1970s palette
- Handheld and documentary-style camerawork for ambiguous realism
Spaghetti Western
Italian-made Westerns shot in sun-bleached Spanish deserts, defined by extreme close-up/wide-shot contrasts, anamorphic vistas, operatic stylization, and gritty, amoral antiheroes.
- Anamorphic widescreen vistas of arid desert and vast empty sky
- Extreme facial close-ups—eyes, sweat, stubble—cut against the wide shots
- Sun-bleached, warm dusty palettes of ochre, tan, and bleached sky
- Long telephoto lenses compressing standoffs and distances
- Operatic, ritualized staging of duels with held, tense compositions
At a glance
| New Hollywood | Spaghetti Western | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 1967–1980 | 1964–1978 |
| Discipline | Cinematography | Cinematography |
| Region | United States | Italy, Spain |
| Family | Modernist, New Wave | Western, Genre |
| Formal traits | available-light, telephoto, muted-palette, handheld | anamorphic-widescreen, extreme-close-up, sun-bleached, telephoto |
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