7 Lesser-Known Spaghetti Westerns You Need To See, According To Quentin Tarantino

Published Oct 3, 2026, 8:00 AM EDT Richard Craig is a Senior Author at Screen Rant covering film and TV. Richard has also written extensively about horror and film soundtracks, contributing a chapter to the first major academic collection on the folk horror genre, The Routledge Companion to Folk Horror. Richard is also a performing musician and holds an MA in Music and Sound Art. Quentin Tarantino's love of Spaghetti Westerns is hardly a secret. The filmmaker has spent decades celebrating the genre, borrowing its visual style, musical influences, and storytelling techniques for films ranging from Kill Bill to Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight. While Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and Once Upon a Time in the West are often treated as the definitive entries in the genre, Tarantino's tastes extend far beyond the obvious classics. During an interview with the Spaghetti Western Database while filming Inglourious Basterds, Tarantino revealed his personal top 20 Spaghetti Westerns. The list included several universally acclaimed masterpieces, but it also highlighted a number of lesser-known films that rarely receive the same level of attention. Many were directed by filmmakers who worked in Leone's shadow, while others starred familiar genre icons such as Lee Van Cleef, Franco Nero, Tomas Milian, and Gian Maria Volonté. What unites these movies is their willingness to push the genre in different directions. Some blend political revolution with action spectacle. Others embrace psychological drama, brutal revenge stories, or operatic violence. For viewers who have already exhausted Leone's filmography, these are some of the best hidden gems the genre has to offer. The Mercenary (1968) Released in 1968 and also known as A Professional Gun in the UK, The Mercenary stars Franco Nero as Sergei Kowalski, a Polish mercenary who becomes involved with Tony Musante's Mexican revolutionary Paco Roman. Jack Palance plays Curly, the ruthless American who pursues them. The Mercenary is a Zapata Western set against the Mexican Revolution, but director Sergio Corbucci is interested in the relationship between the cynical Kowalski and the increasingly committed Paco as much as the political conflict itself. Kowalski initially approaches revolutionary warfare as another job, while Paco becomes increasingly invested in the cause. That combination of political revolution, cynical humor, colorful personalities, and spectacular action makes The Mercenary an especially good example of why Corbucci was more than simply an imitator of Leone. Tarantino's admiration also extends to the soundtrack. Ennio Morricone's "Il Mercenario (ripresa)" and "L'Arena" both originated in the film and were subsequently used in Kill Bill. Day Of Anger (1967) Day of Anger places Lee Van Cleef in the unusual position of playing a charismatic but deeply dangerous mentor. Giuliano Gemma stars as Scott Mary, a young man working as a street sweeper in Clifton and routinely treated with contempt because of his social position. Van Cleef's Frank Talby sees potential in him and begins teaching him the skills of a gunslinger. The relationship between the two men is Day of Anger's defining feature. Scott initially sees Talby as the embodiment of everything he wants to become: powerful, respected, and feared. However, Talby's lessons gradually expose the darker side of that transformation. This makes Day of Anger considerably more character-driven than its title might suggest. Director Tonino Valerii, who had previously worked as an assistant director to Sergio Leone, puts considerable emphasis on the developing relationship rather than simply piling up gunfights. Riz Ortolani's jazz-influenced score provides a striking alternative to the Morricone sound associated with many Spaghetti Westerns. Death Rides A Horse (1967) Giulio Petroni's Death Rides a Horse is essentially a revenge story built around two generations of gunslingers. John Phillip Law plays Bill Meceita, whose family is murdered when he is a child. Years later, he crosses paths with Ryan, played by Lee Van Cleef, a former outlaw who has his own unfinished business with the same group of criminals. The pairing gives Death Rides a Horse a structure reminiscent of the mentor relationships that recur throughout the genre. Bill is young, driven, and consumed by revenge; Ryan is older and considerably more experienced. Their partnership is uneasy because both men have personal reasons for pursuing the killers. Death Rides a Horse also makes unusually effective use of flashbacks to reveal the details of the original massacre and gradually establish Bill's connection to Ryan. Petroni borrowed the visual style of Leone's films, including the Techniscope look, while also drawing on the older-gunslinger/younger-gunslinger dynamic seen in For a Few Dollars More. Navajo Joe (1966) Navajo Joe is one of the most striking titles on Tarantino's list because it stars Burt Reynolds in his first major film role. Reynolds plays the title character, a Native American warrior who seeks revenge against the gang of scalp hunters responsible for massacring his tribe. Aldo Sambrell plays Mervyn "Vee" Duncan, the gang's leader. Navajo Joe is undoubtedly a product of its period, and its depiction of Native American identity has attracted criticism. Even so, its action filmmaking and Morricone score have helped it endure as a cult favorite. Tarantino used two pieces from Morricone's score ("A Silhouette of Doom" and "The Demise of Barbara/The Return of Joe") in Kill Bill. That makes the movie particularly interesting for Tarantino fans. Watching it reveals the source of musical ideas that later became part of one of his most recognizable revenge films. The Big Gundown (1966) Sergio Sollima's The Big Gundown is one of the most politically charged films on Tarantino's list. Lee Van Cleef plays bounty hunter Jonathan Corbett, who is hired to track down Tomas Milian's Cuchillo Sanchez after the Mexican is accused of a serious crime. The manhunt gradually becomes more complicated as Corbett questions the circumstances surrounding the accusation. Milian's Cuchillo is particularly important to the film's identity. Rather than functioning as a conventional Western fugitive, he is resourceful, quick-witted, and capable of repeatedly evading Corbett. The pursuit consequently becomes a battle of intelligence as much as marksmanship. The Big Gundown was written by Sollima and Sergio Donati, with a story by Franco Solinas and Fernando Morandi, and Ennio Morricone provided the score. Morricone's "The Verdict" from The Big Gundown also found its way into Inglourious Basterds. The Grand Duel (1972) The Grand Duel is the latest film among Tarantino's seven selections here and one of the clearest examples of how the Spaghetti Western continued evolving after the genre's initial explosion in popularity. Giancarlo Santi directed the 1972 film, having previously worked as an assistant director on Sergio Leone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Once Upon a Time in the West. Lee Van Cleef stars as Clayton, a former sheriff who protects Philip Vermeer, a young man accused of murdering the powerful patriarch of the Saxon family. Philip has been condemned for a crime he did not commit, while the Saxons pursue him with considerable resources. The Grand Duel’s mystery is gradually unraveled as Clayton's own connection to the patriarch's death becomes clear. The climax consequently turns the conventional bounty-hunt structure on its head. Its other major attraction is Luis Bacalov's score. The main theme was subsequently used by Tarantino in Kill Bill: Volume 1, including during the sequence in which the Bride regains movement in her toes. The Dirty Outlaws (1967) Franco Rossetti's The Dirty Outlaws, also known as El Desperado and Big Ripoff, is the deepest cut on this list. Andrea Giordana plays Steve Belasco, an outlaw who discovers that a blind man has a hidden cache of gold. Steve disguises himself as the man's supposedly returning son in an attempt to locate the treasure. His scheme becomes considerably more complicated when another gang arrives to rob a military payroll and ultimately takes the blind man's gold as well. That setup makes The Dirty Outlaws noticeably different from the revenge-driven films elsewhere on Tarantino's list. Its central character begins with an outright con, and the story derives much of its tension from shifting loyalties and competing attempts to obtain the same fortune. Gianni Ferrio provided the score, while Rossetti directed a cast led by Giordana, Rosemary Dexter, and Franco Giornelli. It may not have the international reputation of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, but that is precisely what makes Quentin Tarantino's endorsement useful: his list points toward a corner of the genre that most casual viewers never reach.