Sabata (1970)

What makes it different from others?

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Lee Van Cleef introduces the sardonic Sabata character in this film where he plays the title role. This man always kills with a twinkle in the eye and he twinkles like a star in this film as the bodies pile up. Most of them are chalked up to him with a few to spare for his sidekicks, Ignazio Spalla a porky Mexican bandit, Aldo Conti a most athletic Indian, and William Berger named banjo who makes some mighty interesting music on it.Sabata is up against the good city fathers of Daugherty, Texas who have the chutzpah to rob an army payroll and who want to use the money to buy up a lot of land so the railroad coming through has to pay them big time. The gang is led by a most epicene villain Franco Ressel. He seems to have a limitless amount of gunslingers, but Sabata and company whittle them down considerably, some in wholesale bunches.Nothing to take too seriously here folks. Western pasta now being served.

SABATA is a stylish, well-made and action-packed spaghetti western, almost but not quite up there with DJANGO. The excellent Lee Van Cleef gives an assured performance as the gun-toting man in black who makes short work of various bad guys and henchmen pitted against him.The plot is simple stuff: a wide-ranging criminal gang, whose members occupy all levels of society, rob a bank and steal a sizable haul. Sabata foils the plot and returns the money, only to fall foul of the men responsible. He thinks he deserves a reward, but the only thing they want to reward him with is death. The stakes increase until an all-out war ensues.There's virtually no story in this film, just one big set-piece after another. Gianfranco Parolini handles the whole thing with aplomb, and the action is perfectly shot. Alongside Van Cleef, we get William Berger as a mysterious guitar-playing drifter, and Nick Jordan playing the amusingly acrobatic Indio. Franco Ressel makes for a delightfully slimy villain and overall there's little to dislike here; it's just an action-packed western that delivers everything you'd hope for.

The ultra-cool Lee Van Cleef stars as the title character, Sabata, an enigmatic gunslinger dressed all in black. He rides into a Texas town where he gets involved with bank robbers, corrupt businessmen, and a banjo player he has history with. Stylish and fun Spaghetti Western. It may not be up to the work of Leone or Corbucci but it's still a good one. Van Cleef is awesome, as always. He's one of those actors whose screen presence is so great I would watch him read the phone book. William Berger, Ignazio Spalla, and Aldo Canti are all fun. Franco Ressel plays the bad guy and looks like a cross between Buster Keaton and Conrad Bain. Great soundtrack from Marcello Giombini. There were two more Sabata films after this that weren't bad but not as good as this one. Van Cleef returns for the third one but is replaced by Yul Brynner in the second.

Not that they will alter your enjoyment of this film but ...POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD!!! There were three of them up for grabs back then; Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson and Lee Van Cleef. Of course, Clint won the star and then history went its way. Charles went on to reign in the beautiful "Once Upon a Time in the West" alongside of Henry Fonda who did the best "against type" in cinema history. Lee Van Cleef followed Clint through "For a Few Dollars More" and the great but not-as-good-as-"Once Upon a Time In The West" classic "The Good The Bad and the Ugly".Clint had the squint but Lee Van Cleef was the actor all spaghetti westerns wanted. His eyes, the physical features of his face, his poise and delivery of lines (when the lines weren't way way dumb - he had a director, remember).Way up over the top bounty hunter, good-guy/bad-guy, supernatural marksmanship, mysterious even when the mystery isn't resolved ... he played the same character in many films, even a "shouldn't have been done" Magnificent Seven" outing."Sabata" gave him his role, three years after Clint's squint.With "Sabata", Lee found his role that Clint Eastwood found with his "Man with no name". "Sabata" was more tongue in cheek and visually energetic but it played exactly into the era. The "Sabata" series missed their chance the same way all those Country and Western singers missed their opportunity when Garth Brooks took things over.The second "Sabata" starred Yul Bryner as "Indio Black" ??!! and Lee stepped in for other sequels but the momentum was gone A lost possibility for cinema. It died on the vine.But "Sabata" remains with all its potential and presentation as a viable series of films whose history just wasn't to be.From the theme (catchy), to Banjo's music (so fitting) to Sabata's accuracy when tossing coins (which resolves a critical point in the movie) this film stepped outside the traditional western ( as overseas films about the American West were doing those days - check out the saguaro cactus in filmed-in-Spain films ... planted plastic).A mis-timed mythology that should have made its mark."Sabata" is the origin that wanted and could have become a set of movies to be cherished by western cinema lovers.it didn't. Our loss.But this seminal film is around for us to revisit and remember.On a personal note there is a couple of lines of dialog that have perplexed me from my first viewing - which came from out of the blue. They are at the end of the film. A companion of Sabata asks "Who the hell are you?" and Sabata says; "Didn't I ever mention it?" End of movie.I would love to know if that was just an enigmatic piece of dialog inserted into things, or if that statement addressed a specific intent of the movie.I don't know how to resolve that question.Any insight would be appreciated.