Wanted Sabata (1970) User Reviews

Lesser spagwest spin-off

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 23 May 2019]

WANTED SABATA is a spin-off from the Lee Van Cleef spaghetti western classic, one which doesn't retain any of the original's cast members. Instead former sword and sandal muscleman takes over the role of Sabata, who looks remarkably like Clint Eastwood's Man with No Name here. He finds himself wrongfully accused of murder and fights to clear his name while at the same time battling the usual violent bandits. This is quite typical spagwest fare, well shot and sunny throughout, while going through the motions in terms of story and scripting. Harris is a likeable lead but the familiarity of it all does get a bit wearing at times.

In-Name-Only Sabata Western Rip-Off

[zardoz-13 · 7/10 · 8 April 2020]

"Wanted: Sabata" has nothing to do with either the Lee Van Cleef original or any of the other "Sabata" westerns. Apparently, Gianfranco Parolini's original "Sabata" enjoyed considerable popularity during the Spaghetti western craze, enough for other European filmmakers to appropriate the name of the protagonist and attach it to their own westerns, which absolutely nothing to do with Lee Van Cleef or "Sabata" (1968). Meanwhile, in co-scenarist & director Roberto Mauri's in-name-only shoot'em up "Wanted: Sabata," former peplum star Brad Harris stars as a gunfighter who is wrongly accused of killing another man's brother by the brother, Jim Sparrow (Vassili Karis of "The Ten Gladiators"), who makes an evil nemesis. The interesting part about the screenplay by Mauri and "The Tartars" writer Ambrogio Molteni is the idea that while Sabata is on the loose, his sagacious adversary Jim Sparrow pins the deaths of several other men on Sabata. Mind you, Brad Harris' Sabata has two brothers and a sister, and he doesn't keep derringers stashed up his cuff. "Wanted: Sabata" isn't a top-notch Spaghetti and the production values aren't as sturdy as those Alberto Grimaldi spectacles with which Sergio Leone revolutionized the genre. Nevertheless, Mauri and Molteni keep things interesting throughout its minimal 82-minute running time as the villainous Sparrow masquerades as Sabata--when nobody else is around to witness the murders-to drive up the bounty on our eponymous hero. As Spaghetti westerns rank, "Wanted: Sabata" shuns humor and lowest common denominator comic relief for gunfights galore. Mauri knows how to imitate Leone when it comes to alternating extreme close-ups of eyes with close-ups of hands fanning a revolver during a shootout. Happily, the filmmakers maintain a modicum of suspense as the hero and the lawman figure out that Sparrow has been impersonating Sabata.

GREAT, BELIEVABLE .SPAGHETTI WESTERN STORY

[larryanderson · 8/10 · 16 December 2020]

One of the better Spaghetti Western movie stories I have seen for a long time. Brad Harris at is acting best. Good supporting cast. The story unfolds in a logical manner that culminates in a surprise ending. Worth watching.