Spaghetti Shakespeare: „Johnny Hamlet” and the Italian Western

Darlena Ciraulo

doi:10.1515/mstap-2017-0008

Authors

Darlena Ciraulo University of Central Missouri

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1515/mstap-2017-0008

Keywords:

Johnny Hamlet, Shakespeare, Hamlet, Italian Western, Spaghetti Western, Castellari, Corbucci, Django, western, revenge

Abstract

The Italian Western, Johnny Hamlet (1968), directed by Enzo G. Castellari, draws on the revenge story of Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet for plot and characterization. While international distributors of the film downplayed its connection to highbrow Shakespeare, they emphasized the movie’s violent content and actionpacked revenge narrative, which was typical of the western all’italiana. Johnny Hamlet shares similarities with the brutally violent Django (1966), directed by Sergio Corbucci, whose avenging angel protagonist epitomizes the Spaghetti Western antihero. Although the filmmakers of Johnny Hamlet characterized Johnny as a vindicator, they also sought to develop the “broody” aspect of this gunfighter, one based on Shakespeare’s famously ruminating hero. Using innovative film techniques, Johnny Hamlet shows Johnny as a contemplative pistolero.

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Author Biography

Darlena Ciraulo, University of Central Missouri

Darlena Ciraulo is Professor of English at the University of Central Missouri. Her research devoted to the ancient romance tradition in Shakespeare has appeared in Prose Fiction and Early Modern Sexualities in England (Palgrave). Her publications on Shakespeare and appropriation have appeared in Philological Quarterly, Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation, Philosophy and Literature, Disability, Health, and Happiness in the Shakespearean Body (Routledge), and Broadcast Your Shakespeare (Bloomsbury Arden). Her current interests are Shakespeare and visual culture and representations of Shakespeare in the American West. She is working on a book-length project that explores Shakespeare on the American Western frontier.

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