Western Films: 1960-1969 - Page 4

From The Overlook Film Encyclopedia: The Western, edited by Phil Hardy. The Overlook Press, 1995 pp. 274-319.
"The Western Goes International" as a European sensibility begins to dominate the genre, despite European Westerns dating back to the silent era. Italian Westerns combined spy and sword-and-sandal formulae with additional violence. Westerns in the United States turned toward parody as the two directors to become most associated with the Western during this and the following decade were Andrew V. McLaglen and Burt Kennedy. Notable exceptions were the violent westerns of Sam Peckinpah and Monte Hellman. A cycle of contemporary Westerns bemoaned the vanishing West, and John Ford, Howard Hawks, and Raoul Walsh made "bitter, end-of-career statements." He also notes star vehicles and formulaic Westerns with Audie Murphy. Oddly enough, on page 313, he has entries on Five Bloody Graves and The Gun Riders without realizing they are alternate versions of the same film.