Concurrent with the 1960s’revolution of cultural values, cinema Westerns began to challenge assumptions upon which classic Westerns were based. Perhaps the most obvious result was the deterritorialization of the classic Western by Italian directors such as Sergio Leone, who shot their films in Europe, usually Spain but sometimes Italy. These spaghetti Westerns removed geographic space as a regenerative force and developed antiheroes who no longer claimed moral rightness as an absolute. Good and bad mix freely, most notably in Leone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1967). The moral center is based on self-preservation and self-gratification. Post-Westerns were clearly influenced by the popular ideas of mid-century existentialism as advocated by Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. Because they did not adequately deal with social issues such as sexism, homophobia, and racism (against Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and even Asian Americans), antimyth Westerns made a transitional philosophical statement and then were superseded by alternative Westerns.
Historical Dictionary of Westerns in Cinema. Paul Varner. 2012.