Andean Western The Andean Western is typically a bandit narrative set in postcolonial Peru. is a new and emerging genre, derived from the
Spaghetti Western movement. It is usually set in Peru and other countries in andean South America. The first film under this term was "Pueblo Viejo" in 2015.
Australian Western or meat pie Western The Australian Western genre or meat pie Western is set in Australia, especially the
Australian Outback or the
Australian Bush. The genre borrows from US traditions.
The Tracker is an archetype in this form of Australian Western, with signature scenes of harsh desert environments, and exploration of the themes of rough justice, exploitation of the
Indigenous Australians, and the thirst for justice at all costs. Others in this category include
Rangle River (1936),
Kangaroo,
The Kangaroo Kid (1950),
The Sundowners (1960),
Quigley Down Under (1990),
Ned Kelly (1970),
The Man from Snowy River (1982),
The Proposition (2005),
Lucky Country (2009), and
Sweet Country (2017).
Mystery Road (2013) is an example of a modern Australian Western, and the
Mad Max franchise has inspired many futurist dystopian examples of the Australian Western such as
The Rover (2014).
Charro, cabrito, or chili Westerns Charro Westerns, often featuring musical stars, as well as action, have been a standard feature of
Mexican cinema since the 1930s. In the 1930s and 1940s, these were typically films about horsemen in rural Mexican society, displaying a set of cultural concerns very different from the Hollywood metanarrative, but the overlap between "charro" movies and Westerns became more apparent in the 1950s, '60s, and '70s. Some examples are
Ismael Rodríguez's
Los Hermanos del Hierro (1961),
Jorge Fons's
Cinco Mil Dólares de Recompensa, and
Arturo Ripstein's
Tiempo de morir. The most important is
Alberto Mariscal, great author of
El tunco Maclovio,
Todo por nada,
Los marcados,
El juez de la soga, and
La chamuscada.
Chinese Western The Western is a popular genre in the Asian film industry. Examples of the Chinese Western genre include
Millionaires Express (1986),
Let the Bullets Fly (2010) and
Once Upon a Time in China and America (1997).
Dacoit Western The
Bollywood film
Sholay (1975) was often referred to as a "curry Western". A more accurate genre label for the film is the "
dacoit Western", as it combines the conventions of Indian
dacoit films such as
Mother India (1957) and
Gunga Jumna (1961) with those of spaghetti Westerns.
Sholay spawned its own genre of "
dacoit Western" films in Bollywood during the 1970s. The first Western films made in India –
Kalam Vellum (1970, Tamil),
Mosagallaku Mosagadu (1971, Telugu),
Ganga (1972, Tamil), and
Jakkamma (1972, Tamil) – were based on classic Westerns.
Thazhvaram (1990), the Malayalam film directed by
Bharathan and written by noted writer
M. T. Vasudevan Nair, perhaps most resembles the spaghetti Westerns in terms of production and cinematic techniques. Earlier spaghetti Westerns laid the groundwork for such films as
Adima Changala (1971) starring
Prem Nazir, a hugely popular zapata spaghetti Western film in Malayalam, and
Sholay (1975)
Khote Sikkay (1973) and
Thai Meethu Sathiyam (1978) are notable curry Westerns.
Kodama Simham (1990), a Telugu action film, starring
Chiranjeevi and
Mohan Babu, was one more addition to the Indo Western genre that fared well at the box office. It was also the first South Indian movie to be dubbed in English as
Hunters of the Indian Treasure. Takkari Donga (2002), starring Telugu actor
Mahesh Babu, was applauded by critics, but was average at box office.
Quick Gun Murugun (2009), an Indian comedy film that spoofs Indian Western movies, is based on a character created for television promotions at the time of the launch of the music network Channel [V] in 1994, which had cult following.
Irumbukkottai Murattu Singam (2010), a Western adventure comedy film, based on cowboy movies and paying homages to the John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, and
Jaishankar, was made in Tamil.
Laal Kaptaan (2019) is an IndoWestern starring
Saif Ali Khan, which is set during the rise of the
British Empire in India.
Jigarthanda DoubleX (2023) is an Indo western starring
S. J. Suryah and
Raghava Lawrence in lead roles, Set in the 1970s, it revolves around an upcoming policeman trying to kill a gangster by going undercover as a filmmaker.
Euro-Western Euro-Westerns are Western-genre films made in Western Europe. The term can sometimes include the spaghetti Western subgenre. One example of a Euro-Western is the Anglo-Spanish film
The Savage Guns (1961). Several Euro-Western films, nicknamed sauerkraut Westerns because they were made in Germany and shot in
Yugoslavia, were derived from stories by novelist
Karl May, and were
film adaptations of May's work. One of the most popular German Western franchises was the
Winnetou series, which featured a Native American
Apache hero in the lead role. Also in
Finland, only a few Western films have been made, the most notable of which could be the 1971 low-budget comedy
The Unhanged, directed by, written by, and starring
Spede Pasanen. Some new Euro-Westerns emerged in the 2010s, including
Kristian Levring's
The Salvation,
Martin Koolhoven's
Brimstone, and
Andreas Prochaska's
The Dark Valley.
Filipino Western Also called the
Adobo or
Pancit Western, the genre, already familiar to Filipino audiences due to American rule of the Philippines, is transposed into a Filipino setting. It is distinct from other Asian Westerns by retaining more of the aesthetic of American Westerns but at the same time, having traditional Filipino themes, and many of the films also had socio-political context. The heroes were usually identified with the local people seeking redress from the landed elite or a supernatural force seeking their exploitation or destruction. Noted actors
Fernando Poe Jr.,
Ramon Revilla Sr., and later Philippine president
Joseph Estrada had played numerous roles in Westerns.
Greek Western According to the naming conventions after spaghetti Western, in Greece they are also referred to as "
fasolada Westerns" (Greek: φασολάδα = bean soup, i.e. one of the national dishes of Greece). Notable examples are
Blood on the Land (1966), which was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and ''
Bullets don't come back'' (1967).
Nordestern A nordestern film is a Brazilian genre that is set in the
Sertão region of
Brazil. The name is a mix of "Western" and "Nordeste", refearing to the
Northeastern Brazil. These movies are about banditry, heroes, or folklore of the region.
Ostern Ostern or Eastern films were Western-style films produced in the
Soviet Union and Socialist Eastern Europe. They were popular in Communist Eastern European countries and were a particular favorite of
Joseph Stalin. Osterns are typically divided between "Easterns", which sought to portray an Eastern European analogue to the Wild West set in frontier regions across Eurasia, and "Red Westerns", which were set in the American West but sought to subvert the ideas of
manifest destiny and other narratives typical of Hollywood Westerns in favor of
Marxist ideals of
proletarian internationalism and
class consciousness. Red Western films usually portrayed the
American Indians sympathetically, as oppressed people fighting for their rights, in contrast to American Westerns of the time, which frequently portrayed them as villains. Osterns frequently featured
Gypsy or
Turkic people in the role of the Indians, due to the shortage of authentic Native Americans in Eastern Europe. In "
DEFA-Indianerfilme" series of films, produced in the
GDR,
Gojko Mitic portrayed righteous, kind-hearted, and charming Indian
chiefs (e.g., in
Die Söhne der großen Bärin (1966), directed by
Josef Mach). He became honorary chief of the
Sioux tribe when he visited the United States, in the 1990s, and the television crew accompanying him showed the tribe of one of his films. American actor and singer
Dean Reed, an expatriate who lived in
East Germany, also starred in several Ostern films. "Eastern" films typically replaced the
Wild West setting with by an
Eastern setting in the
steppes of the
Caucasus. Western stock characters, such as "
cowboys and
Indians", were also replaced by
Caucasian stock characters, such as
bandits and
harems. A famous example of the genre was
White Sun of the Desert, which was
popular in the Soviet Union.
Ramen Western First used in the publicity of the film
Tampopo, the term "ramen Western" also is a play on words using a national dish. The term is used to describe Western style media set in Asia. Examples include
The Drifting Avenger,
Break the Chain,
Millionaires Express,
East Meets West,
Tears of the Black Tiger and
Dynamite Warrior,
Let the Bullets Fly,
Unforgiven,
Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts,
Buffalo Boys,
The Good, the Bad and the Weird, Golden Kamuy and
Sukiyaki Western Django.
Spaghetti Western as the ambiguously named protagonist of the Dollars Trilogy (marketed as "the
Man with No Name") in a publicity image of
A Fistful of Dollars, a film by
Sergio LeoneDuring the 1960s and 1970s, a revival of the Western emerged in Italy with the "spaghetti Westerns", also known as "Italo-Westerns". The most famous of them is
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, the third film of the
Dollars Trilogy. Many of these films are low-budget affairs, shot in locations (for example, the Spanish desert
region of Almería) chosen for their inexpensive crew and production costs, as well as their similarity to landscapes of the Southwestern United States. Spaghetti Westerns were characterized by the presence of more action and violence than the Hollywood Westerns. Also, the protagonists usually acted out of more selfish motives (money or revenge being the most common) than in the classical Westerns. Some spaghetti Westerns demythologized the American Western tradition, and some films from the genre are considered revisionist Westerns. For example, the Dollars Trilogy itself has much different tropes compared to standard Westerns, demythologizing the Sheriff figure (in
A Fistful of Dollars and
For a Few Dollars More), putting both the
Union and the
Confederacy in ambiguously moral positions (
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly), and not featuring Native Americans (except for a brief mention in
A Fistful of Dollars). The Western films directed by Sergio Leone were felt by some to have a different tone from the Hollywood Westerns. == Documentary Western ==