I want to know which settings do you like. I guess The Big Gundown and Companeros have the best landscapes.
I guess then there are 4 types of settings:
a) mexican style settings (gray landscapes, adobe bulidings)
b) american desert type settings, lots of dust and tumbleweeds
c) town settings, saloons etc
d) north american settings (green woods, rocky mountains…)
or did i forget some?
That’s true. I like these desert and pueblo settings.
I didn’t like the setting from Django. For me a SW must look like Mexico.
But the Great Silence-setting was beautiful, too.
I don’t really know. I like the city setting, because the brawls in saloons are great.
But the desert is great too. This long walk of Blondie and Tuco in GBU is an incredible scene in the movie. Mexican stylee, too, of course.
The north american setting is too unfilthy ;D if you know what I mean. IMO it doesn’t show the real side of spaghetti western. I don’t like it very much…
I prefer a mixture of town settings and american desert settings. that’s why to me Once Upon a time in the West is so perfect
I think thats the point. A mixture…
But what would you say about a SW in a really untypical setting…??
Well… tGtBatU takes place n the civil awr. Not too outof shape. But i’d say if it took place in the east, where it was way more civilaised then it wouldn’t be much of a story. As there wouldn’t be little towns, bounty huntin and so forth.
i guess that the setting is very important. just imagine once upon a time in the west without flagstone in the desert. or GBU with a “colt mountain” landscape.
“mexico” and the typical SW towns like Agua Caliente and El Paso in FafDm are important “actors” in a film.
I don’t know if you know Django il Bastardo ( the one with antony steffen ). it looks so bad that the film just terrible and ugly.
even Corbuccis Django would be better without all this mud.
[quote=“Sebastian, post:2, topic:138”]I guess then there are 4 types of settings:
a) mexican style settings (gray landscapes, adobe bulidings)
b) american desert type settings, lots of dust and tumbleweeds
c) town settings, saloons etc
d) north american settings (green woods, rocky mountains…)
or did i forget some?[/quote]
I like also dividing settings into these categories and there are very beautiful scenes set in every type of these. One of the best town settings is the “Ghost Town” in Cemetery without crosses. The dusty and dirty town in Keoma is also brilliant.
The town in Keoma (and also Mannaja) looks so cool because the SW boom was ending and the sets falling into disrepair. The directors tried to hide this by using a lot of dust and fog etc. Wether intentional or not it produced a great atmospheric setting. I always felt that one of the main things separating SW’s from American westerns was the setting. Often after watching an American western I felt like going camping and fishing in the countryside in which it was shot. On the other hand, the SW setting always seemed bleak, hostile and unforgiving. You could almost feel the sunburn, dust in your eyes and a parched throat!
I like them all if they are done right
Almeria looks great as a stand in for for the dry deserts of Mexico, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada & even Parts of Colorado.
Here’s the Pecos River near the real Tucumcari, New Mexico
The town sets are very important, the more raw and exposed to the elements the better.
The Almerian Mexican towns are just perfect in SW’s, some of the American towns in SW’s look better in some films than in others I think the actual Almerian locations work because you have the natural backgrounds. Some of the Italian sets work in some films, it depends on how they are shot. All interiors are very good.
The whole film Keoma looks a lot like Western Montana, its high mountians and grass valleys.
Here are some pictures of Virginia City Montana its 2nd territorial capitol, a preserved real ghost town that could easily be a movie set.
Virginia City:
If you haven’t seen it check out the film “McCabe & Mrs. Miller” it gives a great depiction of a Northwest Western town so they can work if done right. It’ sjust greener.
Two big landscape factors out west are water & elevation, you have to realise that you can go from dry desert to sagebrush plains to, grassy steppes, to Pondersosa pine parks to Douglas Fir & spruce forests. Or from wet Cottonwood stream bottoms to sage brush to high plains to mountians. All this in 20 miles.
The Cemetery Without Crosses set is very surreal I agree and works.
the landscape of Silenzio is the best ever 
, I mean it is a very special kind of landscape especially in a SW
i’ll go to Arizona this summer, maybe someone can come up with a list of places that are good to visit in terms of western settings. i’ll take pictures and post them here of course
Monument Valley, Canyon De Chelly, Old Tucson, Saguaro National Monument, 
And check out the site below:
i have been to some of these locations in Almeria and the majority of them are off the beaten track (some of them a mile or so out into the mountains) so i wouldn’t call them postcard-y really
Manziana of Mannaja is really cool
love the ghost town setting in Matalo!
Like the Mexico seen in Big Gundown
personally favorite setting is the nightime seen in And God Said to Cain
I suppose I like a Mexican setting when it is handled acurately. With lowly pueblos, villages, small towns. Clay mud. Carlo Simi sets mostly. But I like the Mexico of Baldi in Blindman.
Talkin about mexican settings, the setting I hate the most is this Italian standard mex-village.
The first time I realized that was in Don’t wait, Django… shoot!
I hate it ever since. Don’t know why, it simply looks so… I can’t tell…
green?
No, I don’t mean the green gras and tree prairie.
I mean this town:
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