Orestes2.0020_Baldi

Orestes2.0020_Baldi

Ferdinando Baldi, director and screenplay, Il Pistolero dell'Ave Maria [released in translations also as The Forgotten Pistolero (English), Seine Kugeln Pfeiffen das Todeslied (German), and so forth], 1969, motion picture, cinematic adaptation of the oresteia myth.

The DVD sleeve reads: "Upon his return after the war, the Mexican general Carrasco is assassinated by Thomas, an opportunist who has taken advantage of his absence and has taken his wife's love. The two small children manage to escape. But, fifteen years later they are thinking about revenge."

The film's similarities to the plot, characters, and supernatural apparatus of the oresteia are unmistakable, even if the narrative's acknowledgement of the classical myth are not overtly expressed. This makes the film an interesting case-study on the divide between Adaptation and Reception.

Vintage Italian movie poster for "The Gunman of Ave Maria" featuring two men and a burning church

Select Bibliography:
Macfarlane, Roger T. 2016. "Baldi’s Oresteia Rides Again: Il Pistolero dell’Ave Maria (1969) as Euripidean Electra. CAMWS Annual Meetings, Williamsburg, VA, April 2016.

Goldman, Max L. 2014. “Aeschylus’ Forgotten Pistolero” abstract is published among the CAMWS 2014 (Waco) abstracts at https://camws.org/meeting/2014/abstracts/panels/003.../Aeschylus.2.pdf. The program shows that M.L. Goldman presented the paper in the panel on “The Reception of Aeschylus in International Film, Fiction, and Theatre” organized by R. F. Kennedy on 3 Apr 2014. FURTHER, Goldman presented similar research at the Nov 2015 Film & History conference in Madison, audivi.

Bruckner, U.P. 2006. Für ein Paar Leichen Mehr: der Italo-Western von seinen Anfängen bis heute, 2nd ed. stark erweitert u. aktualisiert. Berlin: Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf.

De Martino, Francesco. 2006. “Elettra al Cinema,” in El Teatro Greco-Latino y su Recepción en la Tradición Occidental, El Teatro Clásico en el Marco de la Cultura Griega y su Pervivencia en la Cultura Occidental, 9, University of Valencia, 4-7 May 2005, ed. by J. V Bañuls et al. Bari: Levante. Pages 138 – 82 [160 – 62 for Baldi and analysis]