The bartender at the Yellow Rose Saloon begins pouring drinks in the middle of the morning, as soon as the village starts to come to life and there are customers to be served. Someone strums a guitar, singing a country song.
Giant cacti thrust through the poor desert soil. On high ground at one end of the village is a cemetery. In front of the saloon is a big open area that passes for a main square, surrounded by buildings that have seen more prosperous days.
I defy anyone to walk through this last remaining spaghetti western film set and not whistle the theme tune to The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1966).
Even if you are not a film buff, it is virtually impossible not to feel the heft of an imaginary poncho on your shoulders or the bitter-sweet taste of a thin dark cheroot in your mouth as you saunter past the saloon or the general store.
Climb to the first floor verandah of the Arizona Palace Hotel and you can't help squinting towards the horizon for a tell-tale cloud of dust rolling down the valley.
This is Mini-Hollywood, a cinematic theme-park built as a location for cowboy movies. A Fistful of Dollars was one of many films shot here, Clint Eastwood and Paul Newman were among a number of actors who must have spent half their lives in the Almería desert.
With a script based on Akira Kurosawa's samurai epic Yojimbo, an American TV actor named Clint Eastwood, a music composer named Ennio Morricone, and a cameraman named Massimo Dallamano, Leone made what was essentially supposed to be a throw-away film; Per un Pugno di Dollari — A Fistful of Dollars . Leone's unique style, artistic camera angles, extension of time and raw, explosive violence presented a skewed view of the West, making his film different from any Western that had come before.
Leone followed up with a sequel in 1965— For a Few Dollars More , this time teaming Eastwood with Lee Van Cleef as rival bounty hunters. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) with Eastwood, Van Cleef and Eli Wallach was the last of Leone's Dollars Trilogy. Between 1960 and 1975, nearly 600 westerns were made in Europe. Because most of them were financed by Italian companies, they were called spaghetti westerns. The vast majority of spaghetti westerns were filmed on location in Spain, usually near the Mediterranean coastal town of Almería. This area of the country resembles the American southwest, which is why most of the films take place along the Mexican border (that, and all the Spanish extras).
Despite numerous ploys for the tourist dollar (obligatory photo at the gate with a cowboy), Mini Hollywood is still well worth visiting. The frontier town complete with jail and gallows has been preserved as a tourist attraction.
It is possible to buy a poncho, Stetson, fake Colt or Winchester from one of the delightfully tacky gift shops. For a few euros more, you can take home a sepia tinted photo of yourself trussed up like a cowboy next to a wagon in the main square.
The can-can show at the Yellow Rose is enthusiastic rather than accomplished while the daily enactment of a gunfight and lynching would be laughable if it were not. There are regular shoot-outs in the square, but no one is alarmed by these, despite the screams that often accompany them.
The scarred and parched hills of Almería is where Leone and countless other directors came to shoot low-budget westerns, drawn by the harsh mountainous landscapes, dazzling light and cheap labor.
Hollywood movie-makers were first attracted to the country by the timeless aspects of Almería's desolate landscape. Part-desert, part-rock formations, it is endlessly fascinating. Craggy peaks give way to undulating hills and dramatic cone-shaped rocks.
A canyon appears out of nowhere, to be replaced equally suddenly by uneven plains. There are few identifiable landmarks, and for miles, the Spanish countryside looks more like the moon than anything Hollywood could create for itself. The whole area is sparsely populated. As in other parts of Almería, what you see is only superficial, and it is often hard to believe what lies hidden underneath.
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TRAVEL NOTES
Getting there:
From Madrid, take the highway to Andalucía. The main road in Andalucía, the N340, climbs north out of Almería and skirts the Tabernas desert vistas. Mini Hollywood (+950 36 52 36) is just outside Tabernas. It opens every day from 10am-9pm. Adults 16 euros (US$23), children 8 euros (US$11).
For more information contact the National Tourist of Spain at tel 67373008.
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