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Johnny Hamlet AKA Quella sporca storia nel west (1968)
R2 - Germany - Koch Media Review written by and copyright: Jari Kovalainen (3rd May 2006). |
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The Film
 “To be, or not to be”. That is the piece of English literature that is probably remembered by all, and it´s obviously from the play “Hamlet” from none other than William Shakespeare. In the play, the Danish Prince Hamlet comes back to his hometown, when his father, the King of Denmark, has died. Soon a ghost appears to him and his close friend Horatio, eventually telling him that his father has actually been murdered, and that Hamlet should avenge his death. Another piece of striking news is that his mother Gertrude has already been remarried with Hamlet´s uncle Claudius, causing Hamlet to question this hasty decision. From this famous “tragedy” the Italian director/writer (Sergio Corbucci) penned the idea of moving the story to the west. Eventually Corbucci (who himself directed several acclaimed Italian westerns such as “Django (1966)” and “The Great Silence AKA Il Grande Silenzio 1969”) didn´t actually write or direct the film, so another director/co-writer took the job. Enzo G. Castellari did “Johnny Hamlet” early on in his directing career, and ended up doing some great Italian cult movies after that, ranging from Spaghetti westerns and Polizia-films to the Post apocalyptic-sub genre in the 1980s. He has still worked on Italian TV through the 1990s, and also in the early 2000s. In “Johnny Hamlet”, Castellari proves how talented he was from early on, with creative visual images, solid action sequences, and good actors. The film opens with an almost surreal dream sequence, which shows the audience that this isn´t going to be just an average western. In here, the main protagonist Johnny (Andrea Giordana - as Andre Giordana) dreams about his dead father and his girlfriend, only waking up at the beach, where the group of performers are resting. One of them is rehearsing his lines of Shakespeare; already pointing out something for the audience (the Italian title is actually “Quella sporca storia nel west”, invented by the distributor). Johnny helps the performers by shooting two bandits, and for not saying a word, rides away. To his hometown he goes straight to the graveyard, located inside a large cave and in some ways continues the surreal atmosphere from the beginning. Here after two years in the Civil War, he found his father´s grave, and is yearning for revenge. Soon two local thugs; Ross (Ennio Girolami) and Guild (Ignazio Spalla - as Pedro Sanchez) arrive at the scene, causing trouble. Johnny is already on the losing side, but not for long, since his old friend Horaz (Gilbert Roland) comes and saves the day (to one of many). Here, Horaz tells about the rumours that local Mexican bandit Santana (Manuel Serrano) killed Johnny´s father, and that it was his uncle who eventually shot him. Still, nothing seems to be certain. When Johnny is arriving at his home ranch, more bad news is on the horizon; his mother (Françoise Prévost) has been already re-married with Johnny´s uncle Claude (Horst Frank), and his old fiancée Emily (Gabriella Grimaldi) has also moved on in her life. From here the mystery that is surrounding the death of Johnny´s father slowly starts to unravel, showing the ugly nature of man and his greed. Is Santana the guilty one, even when he should be buried to the same cemetery as Johnny´s father? Why doesn´t uncle Claude like Johnny snooping around? Why is the dancer from the performer group killed after talking too much? Where is the 300 000$ worth of gold that has been lost along the way? Why do two hoodlums - Ross and Horaz - keep harassing Johnny? All this will be revealed in this fine Italian western, which combines the classic tale of Hamlet to the wild-west. The strength of the film is its visual style. All the way from the opening dream sequence the film gives some imaginative camera compositions, which takes the full advantage of lower angles, close-ups, camera movements, and also rapid zooms. Many times shots include some strategically placed objects in the foreground, and it feels like the viewer is e.g. hiding under the stairs, watching the dramatic events that happen in front of them. There are also many “point of view”-shots, which create tension, or just look refreshingly different. On the other hand it has a few beautiful landscapes and locations, which offer some more calm moments before the storm. The film also uses strong colours in selected scenes; e.g. when Johnny is first arriving to his home ranch, it´s lit with deep shades of blue, and the graveyard has a combination of red and yellow, making the look of it very inventive. It´s probably not the most realistic place to bury the dead, but it sure gives some needed atmosphere to the film. Cinematographer Angelo Filippini has done a great job for the film, and generally it feels that this film goes that few “extra miles” when it comes to its visual look. The actors are all capable, but the film doesn´t include any major Spaghetti westerns stars. The lead actor Andrea Giordana (a known TV-actor at that time in Italy) plays a character that is vulnerable and has weaknesses, often needing help from his good friend Horaz, who´s actually my favourite character of the movie. He brings a certain warm feeling to the film, showing what a real friendship means. With the “Latin gentleman look”; small moustaches and a handsome smile, actor Gilbert Roland makes this supporting role work and gives some needed humour in the form of witty dialogue. Roland (he e.g. played “Cisco Kid” in the 1940s), along with actor Horst Frank have both done around 140 movies during their career, and are what you can call “veterans” of the business. Composer Francesco De Masi gives a great score, and I simply love these type of theme songs over the opening credits, taking the viewer right into the genre and into the right mood. The film also includes a few very nicely done action-scenes, but overall the action is not the real start of the film, and sometimes even not that memorable. It mainly combines some choreographic fight scenes, and some quick shootouts; nothing that amazing. “Johnny Hamlet” is a very solid Italian western, with most of the puzzles in their place. Even when the main plot is taken from the classic play, it still offers some originality and a couple of minor twists, and Castellari has some talent to make the film more interesting with visuals and camera tricks. Even when the main idea of revenge is “serious”, the film has some humour and lighter action scenes, and the relationship between Johnny and his friend Horaz works very nicely. Interesting note is that the name of actor Andrea Giordana is “Chip Corman” in the English version, based on the press book (found in the extras).
Video
One of my favorite companies when it comes to Italian westerns, German-based “Koch Media”, has brought another great looking release to the markets. The film is presented in Anamorphic 2.35:1, and is for the most parts very nice. Colours are really strong, black levels solid, and if you don´t count a few softer scenes, the transfer is quite sharp. Problems like edge enhancement and a few film artifacts in a handful of scenes didn´t bother. It´s true that colours look sometimes overly saturated, and certain yellow-ish tones in some scenes make the film look a bit unnatural (e.g. skin tones change, depending on the scene), but I have to assume that it´s the creative decision by the filmmakers (this is shot in “Technicolor” after all). The film runs 91:08 minutes (PAL) and is using Italian credits. “Dual layer” disc is coded “R2”, keeping the bitrate in a good level, and there are 16 chapters. There are no end credits, only music and “black” screen.
Audio
The disc includes two audio tracks, both Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Italian and German. Optional English and German subtitles are included, even when English subtitles are not advertised on the back cover. There are actually two options for German subtitles, since some of the scenes in the German-track are in Italian, so you can choose the subtitles only for those scenes. Still, Italian track was the obvious choice for me, and it´s a good Mono-track, with relatively clear dialogue and without any real issues with the background noise (you´ll start hearing it only if you turn the volume up). German-track sounded quite equal, with perhaps slightly better balance on the dialogue. Even when it seems that many actors speak Italian in the film, the Italian-track doesn´t always match the lip movements (I haven´t seen the film in English, so not sure if that is any better a dub).
Extras
The DVD is packaged in a nice yellow 1-disc digi-pack in a cardboard slipcover. Package also houses a 4-page booklet, which includes liner notes by Wolfgang Luley in German. The main extra is the “Strange Stories From the West" -documentary, that runs 33:59 minutes. It includes the interviews from director/co-writer Enzo G. Castellari, composer Francesco De Masi, and also actor Franco Nero, who has done several movies with Castellari. Both Castellari and Nero speak English (for those parts there are optional German subtitles), and De Masi speaks Italian (it has optional English subtitles). A couple of film clips are in Italian, and include both English and German subtitles. Castellari does the main talking, and has some very interesting stories. He talks about how he started his career (he was 25, when he finished the film “Some Dollars for Django AKA Pochi dollari per Django (1966)”, since León Klimovsky couldn´t finish it for some reason), the origins of “Johnny Hamlet” (he gives high compliment of the actors, talks about the locations, and gives some anecdotes how they shot the scene where camera travels around the actor Andrea Giordana), and also tells a story of how he met Charles Bronson (very funny). Castellari seems to be fit to do a new movie any day, which can only be a good thing. De Masi tells how he originally met Castellari, while Castellari was editing his father´s film “Magnificent Brutes of the West AKA I Magnifici brutos del West (1964)”, and speaks about the hard work that he had with “Johnny Hamlet”. This probably has been one of the last interviews about this superb composer, who passed away in 2005. Franco Nero and Castellari are very good friends now and made over 10 films together, but Nero tells an amusing anecdote about their first meeting (Castellari gave a “terrible impression”), their general collaborations, and also their possible new film (“Badlanders”) is planned (count me in!). Nero also tells a story about the man who pointed a gun at him, only because Nero played some tough characters in the movies. This well-made documentary (although Castellari interview is often out of focus) includes also some photos. Anamorphic Italian (3:01 min) and German (2:51 min) theatrical trailers are included, and there´s also a great photo gallery (149 photos) which includes 4 posters, 4 Italian lobby cards, 21 German lobby cards, 2 B&W stills, German press book (18 pages), English press book (21 pages), B&W stills from the movie (19), B&W stills from the set (50), and location-photos in colour (9). Many photos probably come from Castellari himself, and this is indeed a priceless extra on the disc. Disc rounds up with DVD credits, but there´s also one great easter egg; in the “Extras menu”, highlight the “documentary”, and press either “left” or “up” (you can also highlight the “Hauptmenü”, and press “down”). The eyes from the man will be highlighted. Press “enter”, and you´ll have a theme song “Find a Man” (by Francesco De Masi, featuring Maurizio Graf) as an “karaoke-version” with full lyrics, and running full length (2:36 minutes). Music video has also edited mainly from the trailers to support the music.
Overall
I find “Johnny Hamlet” entertaining, full of great visuals and good acting. The story based on “Hamlet” isn´t anything new, but seeing it in the Italian westerns is quite unique. Koch Media has presented a very nice and English friendly release of the film, and it goes without saying that it should be on every Spaghetti western-fans shelf. German titles is "Django - Die Totengräber warten schon". For more info, please visit the homepage of Koch Media.
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