Spaghetti+Western

The genre that I looked at was the spaghetti western. It is known for its fantastic collaborative use of cinematography and editing, fantastic music, slow zoom in shots, and much more. While at first glance my final film seems nothing like a western, there are some fundamental “western” aspects to it. First is the theme. Most spaghetti westerns focus on a theme of greed and revenge, and this film may not fall under the category of greed, it does have some revenge aspects. The fact that the father ends up getting back at his dad in a way that changes him for the better. The cinematography and editing pair very nicely to each other. In The Good the Bad the Ugly, at the very end, the shots get closer and closer to each character’s face just as the cuts are speeding up. This would be useful in the scene where Eric and his dad, Dwight, are fighting. After each swing of the belt, the camera could cut closer to the characters and the editing could speed up. This could help the audience feel like they are in each character’s head. The laconic hero may not be evidently present in our film, but the father speaks rarely. He is not a typical hero, but goes about certain aspects of the hero’s journey. While spaghetti westerns have fantastic scores, a lot is said when here is no sound (i.e. the beginning of Once Upon a Time in the West). I think in a 7 minute short sound/lack of sound is important. I think that before Eric enters into his childhood home there should be percussion and a whipping sound (like heard in The Good the Bad the Ugly) and then the music should stop when he opens the door. This entire scene could be without music, which could actually increase the intensity of the scene. Zoom in shots aren’t particularly useful in our film (because of theme and tone). It would add uneasiness, but also bring the audience out of the story (i.e. zoom in shot from Shining). I have grown to love spaghetti westerns, and love everything about them. I think that there are some key aspects that could be introduced to our film to enhance it, but also some aspects that just don’t’ fit our theme and tone.