He may have been born and raised a proud citizen of Italy, but Sergio Leone found his greatest cinematic successes coming when he applied his innovative and influential techniques to stories that were distinctly American in their conception and execution.

It goes without saying the western has always been closely associated with the wide-open plains of the United States and the lawless nature of its frontier years, but it was a European director shooting a trilogy in Spain that helped usher in a new era and evolution for the genre.