Like I said in my review of HAMNET yesterday, I struggle with understanding the Shakespeare works. That movie was historical fiction depicting the play Hamlet as Shakespeare’s weird way of processing the death of his son Hamnet. Although I kinda liked the movie I felt like I didn’t have the background to properly appreciate it, so I am correcting that by watching JOHNNY HAMLET, a 1968 spaghetti western version of the Hamlet story directed by Enzo G. Castellari (THE INGLORIOUS BASTARDS) and written by Sergio Corbucci (DJANGO).
We’ve already established that I’m no expert on the subject, but this was way more upfront about being Hamlet than I expected. The Italian title wasn’t even Hamlet related, it was Quella sporca storia nel West (That Dirty Story in the West), but the movie opens with Johnny Hamilton (Andrea Giordana, THE DIRTY OUTLAWS) stained with blood, standing in an eerily foggy cave, slowly approaching a mysterious caped figure, calling him “father.”
Look, I’m not one of those people who brags about their ignorance like it’s some badge of working class authenticity. I’m mostly a smart guy, and would love to be smarter. But I’m honestly admitting here that I’m not all that qualified for the works of William Shakespeare. I’ve enjoyed some of the adaptations, mostly the more stylistically adventurous ones like 
August 26, 1983
THRONE OF BLOOD 
I got a ticket to the opening film of this year’s Seattle International Film Festival, a movie called MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, from the director of THE AVENGERS and the writer of HAMLET. Yes, idolized big brother of the internet Joss Whedon had some time off after directing the highest grossing non-James-Cameron movie of all time so he invited all his actor friends to his house to do a low budget William Shakespeare movie. It was so low budget he had to do it in black and white even though it was on a RED camera.
