10 Best Spaghetti Westerns You Must See Before You Die
2. The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
United Artists
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly isn't just the most famous Western of all time, but also one of the greatest too. The film, released in 1966, serves as a prequel of sorts to the other Dollars films (both Fistful and More were set after the Civil War, whereas TGTBTU is set during the conflict), and positions Lee Van Cleef in a villainous role as Angel Eyes - one of the most sinister villains in all of Leone's films.
The set-up - following three reluctant parties as they forge a fragile alliance to track down some missing Confederate treasure - is as classic as it is genius, with the resulting conflict lending the film an epic feel other Spaghetti Westerns tended to avoid. It works though, and - running time aside - it should be the first port of call for cinephiles yet to broach the genre.
Everything about the film is just magnificent, right down to Ennio Morricone's magnificent score. No Western fan should be without it.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
