Lahmacun Western Movies

The Cowboy movies where a stigma during the 1850’s until the end of the 19th century. It was a haste and believe me it was a huge one. Everyone was imitating Tom Mix, Jack Mack Brown, Buck Jones, George O’Brien, Ken Maynard, Tim Mccoy, Tex Ritter, Dick Foran, Randolp Scott, Roy Rogers and many more. But there were two that stood way far elite than the rest. They were John Wayne and Gary Cooper, these two are still considered the idols of Western movies. All of these characters were one time or another an imaginary hero of all the children.  I even recall having a collection of the pictures of these cowboys that were used as packages for a chewing gum or a chocolate.

The Western Movie style was so huge that it affected the rest of the cinema world. By far the Italians and of course the Turks. The Italians were going creative in this genre that they blew it out of proportion with Sergio Leone’s “For a few Dollars More” and of course “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.” This style was called the Spaghetti Western.

Turkey being creative on its own terms had to do something. They created Lahmacun Western, basically classifying it as Turkish.  It had all the themes, the philosophy, the scenario etc. It was just Turkish Cowboys on their horses.

A man named Ahmet Sert (Sahatlar) was a devoted passionate for Westerns and he is recalled to be the first ever person to film an actually Western movie in Turkey. He builds from his own capital a Western Cowboy town with a church, saloon, a Sheriff office and a few, it’s recorded to be around 14, wooden shacks. He named it Santa Fe and it was located in Taşlıtarla a small district of İstanbul. Ahmet Sert was such a fanatic of Western Movies that all the costumes, gadgets, carriages anything need to make a movie, he had it all. And I don’t need to mention that all the Lahmacun Westerns were shot in this movie platform.

The first ever recorded Lahmacun Western dates back to 1963 and was named ‘Intikam Fırtınası’ (meaning Revenge Storm).
It was as close to a normal Western as possible with even the actors’ names after American cowboys like Tex, Tom, Clark etc. During the period of 1965-1972 basically every top actor or actress had played in a Lahmacun Western. How could they resist the popularity and the demand and of course the extra fame? Also basically all the Western movies shot back in the states had a Lahmacun Western version here in Turkey even including the Daltons.

After passing from the states to Italy and then to Turkey, Western movies where the thing to be. It was also the beginning of alienation of local culture. This lasted until 1972. Imagine all the way from the west of the Mississippi River this American culture moved to Turkey and was converted into Lahmacun.

Some Lahmacun Western Movies for those out there:

• Kader Bağı – 1967
• Kanunsuz Kahraman (Ringo Kid) – 1967
• Son Düello – 1972
• Yılmayan Şeytanlar
• Atını Seven Kovboy (Ret Kit Daltonlara Karşı)
• Belalılar Şehri – 1972
• Hey Amigo
• Küçük Kovboy
• Ret Kit -1970
• Teksas Fatihi
• Ringo Gestapoya Karşı