ALMERIA
Movie sets in Tabernas desert of the southern Spanish city of Almeria are being utilized for tourism purposes after having been discovered by renowned Italian director and architect of cowboy movies, also known as "Spaghetti Western", Sergio Leone and hosting more than 300 movies in the 1960s and 1970s.
Tabernas desert was used by Leone as a movie set for the first time in 1964 for "A Fistful of Dollars" and presently has four facilities for tourism purposes. Among the most famous facilities are Texas Hollywood/Fort Bravo and Mini Hollywood/OASYS.
Around 200,000 local and foreign tourists visit the movie sets at the Tabernas desert, some 40 kilometers away from Almeria, every year.
Tourists watch various shows at the movie sets where stars and directors like Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Brigitte Bardot, Yul Bryner, Anthony Quinn, Sean Connery, David Lean, Orson Welles, Alain Delon, Harrison Ford, and Steven Spielberg once walked. The tourists take photographs during the shows.
Speaking to the Anadolu Agency (AA), Rafa, who had a chance to see the live recording of "Spaghetti Western" movies as a child and who now is a cowboy figurant, complained that since 1984 no major cowboy movie was shot at the Tabernas desert.
The movie sets are being leased for commercials or short films, Rafa said.
Those who come here love shows related to the 'Wild West'. Attack on a bank, duelling, hijacking a man from the sheriff's office, street or bar fights, dances performed by girls are some of the activities that tourists love to watch here, Rafa noted.
Diego Garcia, who has worked at the movie sets for over 40 years, said that he missed the old days.
I began working while I was a child. As a brown haired and white individual, I was called to the movie set whenever there was need for "a gringo". Sergio Leone's "The Good, The Bad, The Ugly" film shot in 1966 had a major role in making Tabernas famous in the world, Garcia stated.
Here, there is a natural setting to shoot a movie with minimum cost. The climate is fair and it is always sunny. Since there is little industrial activity, the sky is clear and blue. In a land of 50 kilometers, you can find sea, desert, mountain, valley and dry river, Garcia indicated.
Not much remain from those years. Structures such as a bank, sheriff's office, and saloon bar still stand. Cowboy movies of the past were excellent and it is very hard to make movies better than those made in the past. While new technology and effects may make new cowboy movies, they can not replace the good films of "Spaghetti Western", Garcia noted.
Reporting by Senhan Bolelli
