If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death (1968)

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Brilliant and touching

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Crooked bankers plan an insurance swindle and hire a Mexican gang to steal the bank's gold but they also pay Lasky's gang to kill the Mexicans.

The Spaghetti Western was always well known for it's quirky, colourful characters and anti-heroes, they were more than just your average, gruff cowboy seen in the American western. They often had their own unique characteristics which audiences remembered them for so well, also due to the James Bond craze, they were also given a wide range of weapons and gadgets,Sartana is one such example, a cunning, super fast and super smart gentleman gunslinger who dons a black cape,suit,white shirt and red neck tie, not to mention cowboy boots complete with Spurs. He uses a six shooter and Winchester rifle but often favours an easily hid Derringer, he is also very shrewd and creative in outsmarting his enemies and in the first of five films he is played by Spaghetti Western veteran Gianni Garko.The plot of this first film in the series "If you meet Sartana, prey for your death" is like this, a stagecoach carrying a gold shipment from the local bank is attacked by Mexican bandits who kill everybody on board,however,just as the bandits are about to make off with the gold, they themselves are attacked and all of them killed by sadistic outlaw Lasky(WILLIAM BERGER)and his men. But Lasky in turn kills his own men when they try and steal the gold,however,when he opens the strongbox, he finds it is full of rocks. Unknown to Lasky, the real gold has been hidden and he is also in league with the town's two corrupt bankers, Jeff Stewal and Al Holman who want the insurance money from the robbery as well as the gold, on top of this, a gang of ruthless Mexican bandits also want the gold, but things are made worse when mysterious gunslinger Sartana(GIANNI GARKO)comes on the scene and is also interested in the whereabouts of the gold. Everyone involved double crosses each other and the body count gets higher and higher, so who will get the gold...The film is very similar to SABATA(1969)as Sartana dresses in the same way as the character of Sabata and displays the same characteristics and uses the same weapons. The storyline is also quite similar and SARTANA is directed by the same guy(GIANFRANCO PAROLINI,or FRANK KRAMER)who directed SABATA too. The film has a very body count and the action scenes are brilliantly done. The horse chases and shootouts are fantastic and I enjoyed watching all the guys fall through the air and perform hilarious stunts as they are shot. I loved the way Lasky uses a Machine Gun to dispatch his enemies and I loved the first scene when Sartana shoots 4 guys with his Derringer and then finishes off the other 2 with his Winchester, having only to bring the Rifle down from over his shoulder to shoot out the last two guys, really impressive. The stagecoach robbery in which the bandits chase and shoot at the stagecoach and are later all shot dead themselves was also excellently done. I was also impressed with the shootout between Sartana and Lasky and his men and the shootout at the bandit's hacienda, check out how Sartana rolls over whilst at the same time shooting his enemies in true Spaghetti fashion, also watch as Sartana crashes through a window and shots a few more guys, really cool. I liked the final duel between Sartana and Lasky, it was suspenseful and quite dramatic, also look out for the scene in which a group of guys chase Lasky into the countryside and enter a building rigged with Dynamite which Lasky shoots, causing the building to explode and there's a really funny scene where Sartana sets a trap for one of the bad guys, causing the latter to go flying out of a window, which really made me laugh. I was extremely impressed with the film's action scenes and thoroughly enjoyed watching them.As I said earlier, the film has a very bondian feel to it in terms of the character of Sartana, who is sort of similar to James Bond. Just like Bond, Sartana is very sharp witted and makes a lot of smart jibes and remarks, you gotta love his first line at the beginning of the film before he shoots 6 guys, "I am your pallbearer". I really like the character of Sartana and he's played brilliantly by Gianni Garko, forget George Hilton or anyone else,Garko is the man and he succeeds fully in creating a really cool and likable Spaghetti Western anti-hero, he is a pleasure to watch. William Berger is also excellent as the double crossing Lasky and a more restrained Klaus Kinski is great as his silent partner, other Spaghetti veteran Fernando Sancho wonderfully plays the brutal bandit leader. Aside from Sartana though, my favourite character is probably the old man,Dusty,a coffin maker who helps Sartana, he's really funny and has some of the best lines. He appears in the other Sartana films alongside Garko, he reminds me of Walter Brennan who appeared as the same type of characters in dozens of American westerns.The only thing I didn't like was the soundtrack which in my opinion was very poorly done, the storyline was good but it got a little confused at times as the characters are constantly double crossing each other and at times I didn't know who was double crossing you or why they're doing it.But the first entry in the Sartana series ranks among the best Spaghetti Westerns and I really enjoyed it, I have only seen one other Sartana film, LIGHT THE FUSE,SARTANA IS COMING(1970)and I would say that this film is just as great as the latter and is on a par with it.Fun,enjoyable and highly reccommened.9/10.

Shrewd and lethal ace gunslinger Sartana (a fine and commanding performance by Gianni Garko) goes after the dangerous band of thieves who held up a stagecoach for a fortune in gold. Sartana engages in a deadly battle of its with the equally crafty and ruthless Lasky (splendidly played to the wicked hilt by William Berger), a total bastard who's willing to do anything necessary (including killing his own men!) to have exclusive dibs on the booty. Director Gianfranco Paulini, who also co-wrote the convoluted script with Werner Hauff and Renato Izzo, relates the complex and compelling story of greed, deceit, and treachery at a constant snappy pace, stages the plentiful thrilling shoot-outs with considerable skill and brio, maintains an appropriately tough and gritty tone throughout, and tops everything off with a nice sense of amusingly sardonic humor. Moreover, there's a marvelously grotesque rogues' gallery of no-count villains: the always terrific Fernando Sancho as wicked bandit Jose Manuel Mendoza, Sydney Chaplin as shifty banker Jeff Stewal, Gianni Rizzo as gross fat creep Alman, Heidi Fischer as the fetching, but duplicitous Evelyn, and, in a regrettably brief role, the immortal Klaus Kinski as Lasky's icy henchman Morgan. Frank Pesce delivers a delightfully spry turn as rascally old coot undertaker Dusty. The tricky narrative keeps you on your toes with all its surprising twists and turns and culminates in a tense and exciting final confrontation between Sartana and Lasky. Both Sandro Mancori's expansive widescreen cinematography and Piero Piccioni's jaunty'n'groovy score are up to speed. An enjoyable film.

It is very obvious why Sartana created an avalanche of sequels, only second to Django. Even if it looks like yet another tale about stolen gold, Mexican bandits and switching allegiances, Sartana feels (and is) different. Of course seen back in 1968, it must have wowed European audiences with its bleak cinematography and nihilistic characters. However, 40 years (!) down the line, and it still feels as refreshingly dark and stylish as ever.As in with most spaghettis, the plot is near incomprehensible. It has something to do about a stolen shipment of gold and a constant switching of allegiances, as thief betrays thief to get the gold. But, again as in with most spaghettis, the plot isn't the issue at all.Sartana (1968) is a capsule of pure spaghetti western style. Everything is kept very minimal here, from the scarce dialogues, to the perennially empty town streets. Yet there's a hellish ambiance to proceedings and the nonsensical plot only adds to its psychotronic charm. I gave up trying to follow the plot after a while and just immersed myself in the surreal happenings.Sartana himself is like a crossover between The Man with no Name (the standard by which every spag antihero is measured) and Django, a black-clad amoral anti-hero. He's not out there to catch the baddies. He's just out for money and blood. His quirky gadgets often bring to mind the other Parolini character, Sabata, but Gianni Garko's character plays on a whole other level. There is of course, the occasional comic relief, in the form of an old gravedigger, but it only confirms that Sartana is indeed a grim western. That same darkness would resurface in Clint Eastwood's High Plains Drifter years later, on the other side of the pond.Overall, this is a must see for SW afficionados. If you're a fan of Corbucci's nihilistic side (Django, The Great Silence), Sartana will make you cream your pants. Dark, stylish, with a streak of Euro horror running through it, Sartana is a criminally forgotten piece of celluloid. Watch it and find out.