| West and Soda | |
| Director: | Bruno Bozzetto |
| Producer: | Bruno Bozzetto |
| Starring: | Nando Gazzolo Vittoria Febbi Carlo Romano |
| Music: | Giampiero Boneschi |
| Cinematography: | Luciano Marzetti Roberto Scarpa |
| Studio: | Cineriz |
| Runtime: | 86 minutes |
| Country: | Italy |
| Language: | Italian |
West and soda (also known as The West Way Out) is a 1965 Italian animated Western comedy film directed by Bruno Bozzetto. It is a parody of the traditional American Western.[1]
In an interview, Bozzetto claimed to have invented the Spaghetti Western genre with this film, an achievement usually attributed to Sergio Leone with his A Fistful of Dollars which was released the year before, but whose development started later and was faster than the traditionally animated West and Soda.[2]
The plot of the film follows the traditional stranger arriving in a small western town. The stranger finds a pretty woman holding out from selling her uniquely green land to the local big shot, who is harassing her in hope of seducing her/buying her land. There is an ongoing mystery about how the stranger got a hold of the gold nugget he possesses, though at the end of the film it is revealed that he found it in a soap box (it is fake).
| Character | Original | English |
|---|---|---|
| Johnny | Nando Gazzolo | Unknown |
| Clementine | Vittoria Febbi | |
| The Boss | Carlo Romano | |
| Ursus | Luigi Pavese | |
| Slim | Willy Moser | |
| Esmeralda | Lydia Simoneschi | |
| The Boss's Horse | Ferruccio Amendola |
A PAL R2 DVD of the film has been released in Italy. It contains 40 minutes of extra material, including interviews, a completely restored version of the film as well as English subtitles.