In the 60’s and 70’s Europe produced over 600 westerns. This boom of low budget film production began after the unexpected financial success of the European western Winnetou, based on German author Karl May’s popular book of the same name. Because many of these films were financed or co-financed by Italian companies, they were nicknamed “Spaghetti Westerns.” Most, however, were actually filmed in the desert near Almería, in the south of Spain, because of its resemblance to the classic western movie landscape. The two geographies, southwestern U.S. and southern Spain, were additionally linked by letting many of the stories take place near the Mexican border, thus bringing an image of Spanish America back to Spain.
Andrea Robbins and Max Becher 2000
