Sabata

source: Sabata

Absolutely ridiculous, totally entertaining ultra-spaghetti western featuring one of entertainments greatest, and ugliest, bad guys - Lee Van Cleef. Here he plays one of his rare good guy roles as Sabata, the cool gunhand who toys with a huge gang, none of whom could put a slug in him. He, on the other hand easily shot and killed them by the bushel basket, using guns, dynamite, and the blade. If you like offbeat westerns with clouds of gunsmoke, and a ton of lead then this is the one for you.

Sabata is another of the Spaghetti Western anti-heros & in this his first film he foils a bank robbery & then blackmails the ringleader. This is a great addition to any Spaghetti Western fans collection with all the classic elements, a good score, some great action & a cast of oddball characters. Sabatas cohorts include such characters as an acrobatic mute indian & best of all Banjo. The always excellent William Berger plays the ambiguous character of Banjo named after the instrument he always carries with him. This character is arguably more interesting than Sabata & should have had his own spin-off film. As in a lot of Spaghettis it is the interesting interplay between characters that is just as important as the plot. Sabata is no out & out hero nor is he a villain but is out for what he can get in the opportunity laden new frontier of the west. Despite this he does have his own moral code. Like many films of its type there is a vague political undercurrent, here we have the bourgeoisie at odds with the working class in the form of the corrupt rich official masterminding the crime to fund his land buying plan. This film has some great gadgets employed by Lee Van Cleef & others which I won't spoil by revealing. Van Cleef was a great actor tailor-made for the wild west & plays Sabata brilliantly here, clad in black & always one step ahead of his enemies, or is he? The only way to find out is to seek out a copy of this most entertaining Spaghetti Western.

Lee Van Cleef made his Spaghetti Western name under Sergio Leone in 1965 with a role in the masterpiece For a Few Dollars More, and a follow up as the villain in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. However, he was only a co-star in those films; whereas Sabata gave him the chance to take the lead...and the result is rather disappointing. Not because of Van Cleef's performance, which is imposing and memorable as always - the problems with this film are more down to the lukewarm plot and rather boring execution. The story begins with a bank robbery in which $100,000 is stolen from an army safe; money that was to be used to buy the land for a planned railroad. However, the thieves haven't banked (ho ho) on a man in black named Sabata turning up and foiling the robbery. He gets the money back and returns to town; where he hooks up with his two sidekicks and proceeds to get in the way of other people in town, which results in plenty of gunfights...although a lot of the plot itself is messy and it's not easy to tell what's going on. The messy plot is of course the main problem with the film, and it really does kill the entertainment value of it. Director Gianfranco Parolini must have had an inkling of this as he packs his film with plenty of gunfights, which are kind of entertaining but not enough so to paper over the many cracks created by the messy plot line. The lead character is of course the main draw and Lee Van Cleef leads every scene he's in and successfully portrays the classic Spaghetti Western anti-hero. However, the same positive things can't be said of the supporting characters, which would at best be described as unwelcome distractions and don't fit the film hardly at all. The film runs for about one hundred minutes, and although many of the best westerns are much longer; this runtime also feels overlong and the overall experience of watching this film is generally not a fun one. Overall, Sabata might be of interest to die hard Spaghetti Western fans; but unfortunately it's not one of the best that the genre has to offer and I don't recommend it.

I would watch practically any "Spaghetti Western" with Lee Van Cleef because even though the writing was not always great in all the films (such as his two Sabata films), his menacing screen presence was amazing--making him one of the most frightening characters in Westerns. While I definitely preferred him in his films he did with Clint Eastwood (FISTFUL OF DOLLARS, FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE and THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY), there is enough eye-popping Van Cleef action to make his fans satisfied. Here, he looked and acted much like the characters in these great films with his piercing eyes, black outfit and amazing skills that were super-human. Unfortunately, at the same time, there were a few major impediments in this film. First, the weird and distracting characters such as 'Banjo' and 'the Alley Cat' did not help improve the movie but detracted from Van Cleef's menacing persona. It's hard to keep focused on the demon-like Van Cleef when these other two are chewing every scene they are in and their on-screen antics are just plain weird. Second, the plot is very convoluted and more complicated than was necessary. Much of this was because of all the weirdos, but much of it was just poor writing relative to the great Italian Westerns made both immediately before and after SABATA. Finally, while it wasn't always bad, the musical score was certainly not up to the standards of an Ennio Morricone score (he did the music for the more famous Italian Westerns). Instead, it ranged from really awful (the opening song in particular) to reminiscent of Morricone--but never his equal. So what you have left is a slightly better than mediocre film thanks only to the screen presence of Lee Van Cleef. Otherwise, try some other Italian Western--almost all of them are better.

Superior Italian Western, recently released in England as a Region 2 DVD. Lee Van Cleef stars as one of those ubiquitous bounty hunters with questionable ethics and impossibly accurate gunplay seeking reward money. He teams up with a former partner named Banjo (William Berger – he plays a banjo, which tends to speak for him much as Charles Bronson's harmonica does in ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST), a local bandit (Pedro Sanchez) and the latter's gymnastic friend Alleycat (Bruno Ukmar) to appropriate a cavalry fortune already stolen by corrupt townsfolk. The storyline meanders through a number of betrayals and allegiance shifts until all is conveniently wrapped up, in somewhat GOOD BAD & UGLY fashion. Van Cleef is excellent, as always, as is Sanchez and the supremely gorgeous Linda Veras as Berger's girlfriend, but rest of the cast is mediocre (especially the overly made-up Franco Ressel as the lead corrupt townfolk). Marcello Giombini fashions a superior musical score which is available on CD. Director Frank Kramer (Gianfranco Parolini) is adequate but unoutstanding, his directorial style fairly uninspired in this film – he went on to direct Van Cleef in a number of other enjoyable Italian Westerns.

This original Spaghetti deals about the master gunslinger Sabata (Lee Van Cleef) taking on some owners and various pillars of society as a baron land (Franco Ressell) and authorities (the judge played by Gianni Rizzo) of a little town called Dougherty . They have stolen an Army safe containing $100,000 so they can buy the properties upon which the coming railroad will be built , but they haven't reckoned on Sabata presence . Sabata is accompanied by a rare group , as a grumpy fat (Pedro Sanchez or Ignacio Spalla who played similar roles to Spaghetti idol, Fernando Sancho), an Indian acrobat (Nick Jordan) and Banjo (William Berger) , a troubadour-alike wielding a guitar that has a extraordinary surprise. This Western parody is plenty of action , humor, shootouts and is quite bemusing . Sabata is a bounty hunter but his aim isn't vengeance like Django , Ringo or Mortimer but the loot . Sabata bears a similar presence to ¨For a fistful of dollars more¨'s Colonel Mortimer , as black clothes and is equally infallible on arms and holds a wide weaponry , furthermore in a James Bond style . It appears habitual secondary actors from Spaghetti Western such as Robert Hundar , Spartaco Conversi , Fortunato Arena, and Luciano Pigozzi or Allan Collins , also named the Italian Peter Lorre . Luxurious production design is created by Carlo Simi , Leone's ordinary , with lush interiors of the nasty's housing full of medieval furniture and armors . The picture was lavishly produced by Alberto Grimaldi and his PEA productions (producer of Leone's trilogy of dollars). Lively and sympathetic musical score by Marcello Giombani with Ennio Morricone influence . Atmospheric and colorful cinematography by Sandro Mancori . The film was well directed by Gianfranco Parolini or Frank Kramer . He began directing muscle-men epics as ¨Rocha¨ , ¨The Macabeos¨ with Brad Harris and ¨The ten gladiators¨ with Dan Davis and Gianni Rizzo , Parolini's usual actor . After that , he continued with ¨commissioner X¨ series with Tony Kendall , fantastic with ¨three supermen¨ and warlike movie as ¨5 per l'Inferno¨ with Gianni Garco (Sartana) and Nick Jordan. His first Western was ¨Johnny West¨ and later on , he directed the ¨Sabata trilogy¨ . It's followed by ¨ Return of Sabata¨ with similar artistic and technician team and ¨Indio Black ¨ with Yul Brynner , Dean Reed and , of course , Pedro Sanchez . And several imitations and rip-offs as ¨ Arriba Sabata¨ (70) by Tulio Demichelli with Anthony Steffen , Peter Lee Lawrence and Eduardo Fajardo ; ¨ Open the tomb arrives Sabata¨ (71) by Juan Bosch with Richard Harrison and Fernando Sancho and ¨Attento Gringo e Tornato Sabata¨ (72) by Pedro L. Ramirez with George Martin , among others .

Several spaghetti westerns inspired a number of sequels focussing on a particular kind of shady hero. Beside the widely known "man with no name" there are (amongst others) Django, Sartana, Ringo, Spirito Sancto and this one, Sabata. Sabata is partly inspired by 'For a few dollars more', since Lee van Cleef plays the bounty hunter Sabata as a character with similar features to his Colonel Mortimer. Especially noticeable is his collection of shooting gadgets. Western fans are used to the never-reload always-hit one-mile -range magic revolvers of classic westerns. In this film, Sabata wins a shoot-out by simply staying out of the range of his opponents revolver and shooting him with one of his long-range weapons. Despite being a bounty hunter, Sabata has his peculiar code of honor, as opposed to the villain of the piece, the sleazy rich land owner Stengel, played superbly by Franco Ressel. As you might expect there is little doubt how it will all end but director Parolini keeps us guessing about Sabata's next moves. A superior spaghetti western.

Lee van Cleef is Sabata, yet another one of those bounty hunters and mavericks who populate the genre. During the story Sabata however interacts with people from all social classes which makes this spaghetti-western one of the most social ones. Specific to the Sabata series are the many special weapons which are not only used by Sabata himself but also by his evil opponents. Added to the rivalry of good Sabata and bad Stengel there is a third party competitor called Banjo (William Berger) who mostly helps Sabata but also wants more than his share of the bounty. Mr. Maltin (from the Guide) obviously hasn't seen this film well. Despite playing a high stake Sabata is not a gambler. This Western is fun. Regarding the score the main theme is one of those tunes that catch you and don't give up soon. Cinematography is stylish, often with dark bluish foregrounds and natural-source(?) yellow-lighted backgrounds. 8 / 10.

Good, exciting western action film. Some originality that's surprising -- i.e. very good acrobats. "Banjo" is obviously Johnny Guitar, but it's still refreshing to see in an Italian western. Van Cleef is brutal and excellent as Sabata, a bounty hunter on the make, and the story is pleasingly ironic, humorous, and without sentimentality or moralizing. Pleasing fun for fans of the genre.