Weren’t most actually shot in southern Spain? That’s vast desert country, lots of different spectacular backgrounds that don’t repeat in different scenes and even different movies.
Even Stanley Kubrick went there in the late 50s, to shoot epic battle sequences for Spartacus that would have been way beyond the film’s budget if he had filmed in California.
Almeria in southern Spain still has a tourist attraction cowboy town in a desert like region that looks like the American midwest. I’ve been near there several times, told about it, read the brochure but never got a chance to visit it.
Look up the filming locations for ‘The Good, The Bad, The Ugly’ … it was filmed all over Spain
For those who are even more curious, Carlo Verdone (who was a friend of Leone) made some documentaries called “Verdone racconta Leone” (see for example this yt video).
These documentaries are packed with anecdotes (Verdone told lots of stories in other occasions too!) and fun stories.
One of my favorite is how Leone convinced Clint Eastwood to use the cigar, which is probably now an unforgettable part of the way we remember Eastwood’s character.
Also a lot of them were shot in Italy, with Italian extras.
Fun fact: Sergio Leone would shoot his movies after the score had been composed.
He would shoot scenes with the soundtrack for the scene playing over loudspeakers.
Then, the dialogue and other sounds would be dubbed in.
This was how such perfect synchronization with the soundtrack was achieved.
EDIT 2: fun fact 2,
My favorite quote of Sergio Leone
Weren’t most actually shot in southern Spain? That’s vast desert country, lots of different spectacular backgrounds that don’t repeat in different scenes and even different movies.
Even Stanley Kubrick went there in the late 50s, to shoot epic battle sequences for Spartacus that would have been way beyond the film’s budget if he had filmed in California.
Almeria in southern Spain still has a tourist attraction cowboy town in a desert like region that looks like the American midwest. I’ve been near there several times, told about it, read the brochure but never got a chance to visit it.
Look up the filming locations for ‘The Good, The Bad, The Ugly’ … it was filmed all over Spain
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060196/locations/
I’m actually going to that region next week. Might try to squeeze in a visit. Thanks for the tip!
For those who are even more curious, Carlo Verdone (who was a friend of Leone) made some documentaries called “Verdone racconta Leone” (see for example this yt video). These documentaries are packed with anecdotes (Verdone told lots of stories in other occasions too!) and fun stories.
One of my favorite is how Leone convinced Clint Eastwood to use the cigar, which is probably now an unforgettable part of the way we remember Eastwood’s character.