The Mexican Revolution in Spanish western genre films: a revolutionary point of view under the totalitarianism

Abstract

Over 1960-1980 Western Genre had a great success in European film industry. Producers tried to increase the number of films based on The Far West introducing new arguments, such as The Mexican Revolution, into the Spanish and Italian co-production system -although this sort of films is only well known as Italian (Spaguetti Western)-. However, Mexico offered a new political point of view for Italian progressive filmmakers. A field where they could show their ideology into commercial films without being subject of interest for the censor system. On the other hand, Spain had not the same creative conditions. Spanish filmmakers had to be limited to participate only in Italian films when they were released in foreign countries while these products were deeply cut and censored for Spanish viewers. Nevertheless, all that created a new kind of cinema: Western Films about The Mexican Revolution shot only by Spanish. A short of product always under the censorship suspicious eye which offered a point of view completely different from the Italian's.