Did their B-movie status mean the filmmakers were better able to tackle controversial issues?
Absolutely. They could make films that were parables and that had other meanings. They seemed to be westerns but they were also about the Vietnam War or something like that. It’s true that, partially, that was possible because they were inexpensively made. If you’re making films on a low budget you have more leeway whereas someone making a more expensive film is constrained by their financiers. When the spaghetti westerns got a foothold in America and American stars began getting involved, do you think that was detrimental in the long-term? It’s interesting. There were two different types of success that they had. Christopher Frayling [writer/academic] is quite clear about it. There were Italian westerns that were made for the international market – and that really means the American market – and Sergio Leone’s films were like that, and so those films tendered to have bigger budgets and a respectful view of the church. Then you have the lower budget Italian westerns, like the ones made
