In other words, Leone created a surrealistic diorama overflowing with American Western iconography that resembles the historical background of the "real" American West, injected with familiar American cinematic imagery related to costumes, physical attributes, architecture, transportation devices, weaponry and even geophysical patterns, such as deserts, wide-open plains, mountains, and typical urban settings reminiscent of an American Western town. In essence, Leone's 'Man With No Name' trilogy "expresses the familiar imagery of the Old West based upon myths and legends culled from the pages of an American history primer" (De Claudio, 76), replete with imaginative visions of the 19th century America Southwest resplendent with good, old-fashioned American violence, greed, avarice, self-promotion and self-determination (De Fornari, 124). Leone also creates a very recognizable milieu "rooted in American historical detail but refracted through the looking-glass" of typical Hollywood Western films dating back to the silent era (Cumbow, 214), an abstraction...

Thus, the proposed Ph.D. dissertation "The Historical Accuracy of Sergio Leone's 'Man With No Name' Trilogy" will examine in-depth a number of areas related to the historical representation of the "Old West" as seen through the lenses of Leone's cameras and the eyes of his numerous "Westernized" characters, being the good, the bad, and the ugly.
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cumbow, Robert C. The Films of Sergio Leone. UK: Scarecrow Press, 2008.

De Claudio, Gianni. Directed by Sergio Leone. Rome, Italy: Libreria University Press,

1990.

De Fornari, Oreste. Sergio Leone: The Great Italian Dream of Legendary America.

Rome, Italy: Gremese International Publishers, 1997.

Edwards, Daniel. "Sergio Leone." Senses of Cinema. 2002. Internet. Accessed November 10, 2009 from http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents / directors/02/leone.html.

Frayling, Christopher. Once Upon a Time in Italy. UK: Thames & Hudson, 2008.