Why are Sergio Leone’s Clint Eastwood westerns called spaghetti westerns?

The term "spaghetti western" refers to a subgenre of westerns produced by Italian filmmakers during the 1960s and early 1970s. These films, which include the iconic collaborations between director Sergio Leone and actor Clint Eastwood, are so named because they were made in Italy and by Italian production teams.12

Spanish journalist Alfonso Sánchez is generally credited with coining the term. While these movies were set in the 19th-century American West, they were typically filmed in Europe—often in the dry landscapes of Spain—to serve as stand-ins for North American desert settings.1

Unlike traditional Hollywood westerns, which often idealized the frontier as a place of virtue and heroism, spaghetti westerns are distinguished by their cynical, violent, and morally ambiguous tone, frequently featuring antiheroic protagonists.1