Multicultural Shakespeare: Translation, Appropriation and Performance Volume 15 Article 8 June 2017 Spaghetti Shakespeare: „Johnny Hamlet” and the Italian Western Darlena Ciraulo University of Central Missouri Follow this and additional works at: https://digijournals.uni.lodz.pl/multishake Part of the Film and Media Studies Commons Recommended Citation Ciraulo, Darlena (2017) "Spaghetti Shakespeare: „Johnny Hamlet” and the Italian Western," Multicultural Shakespeare: Translation, Appropriation and Performance: Vol. 15 , Article 8. DOI: 10.1515/mstap-2017-0008 Available at: https://digijournals.uni.lodz.pl/multishake/vol15/iss30/8 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Arts & Humanities Journals at University of Lodz Research Online. It has been accepted for inclusion in Multicultural Shakespeare: Translation, Appropriation and Performance by an authorized editor of University of Lodz Research Online. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Multicultural Shakespeare: Translation, Appropriation and Performance vol. 15 (30), 2017; DOI: 10.1515/mstap-2017-0008 ∗ Darlena Ciraulo Spaghetti Shakespeare: Johnny Hamlet and the Italian Western 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 action- packed 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.