Sabata (1969) User Reviews

a great spaghetti western

[spider89119 · 8/10 · 5 December 2005]

This is one of the most wonderfully cartoonish and over-the-top spaghetti westerns ever.

The great Lee Van Cleef plays Sabata, the bounty hunter who has more tricks than Bugs Bunny. Van Cleef was born to be in spaghetti westerns. Nobody plays these roles better. He is to spaghetti westerns what Bela Lugosi is to Dracula. He is as great as ever in this movie. William Berger is superb also in the role of Banjo, the cool, laid-back, and deadly musician. He and Sabata have a similar on-again-off-again "partnership" to the one that Blondie and Tuco share in "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." Franco Ressel is perfect as the weird over-the-top villain, "Stengel."

The music score is excellent, especially the title tune, which is one of my favorite spaghetti western theme songs. I also really like the use of the organ in the score. It's a nice touch.

All spaghetti western fans should have this movie. It's a classic of the genre.

Belongs to the Cream of the Genre

[cengelm · 8/10 · 15 October 2001]

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.

Original Sabata film is the best

[funkyfry · 7/10 · 30 October 2002]

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.

Best of the Sabata series

[SMK-3 · 2 September 1998]

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.

Life is only worthwhile when you can face death without showing any fear.

[lastliberal · 7/10 · 12 April 2009]

There is nothing like a good spaghetti western to pass a Sunday afternoon, especially when Tiger has little chance of winning.

This one is particularly good, as it stars the great Lee Van Cleef as a bounty hunter who foils an attempt to rob $100,000 from the army.

Filled with lots of interesting characters like Banjo (William Berger), Carrincha (Ignazio Spalla), and Indio (Aldo Canti); more than a few laughs; and some amazing tricks and gun play by Van Cleef; it is just the thing for fans of the genre.

I have to note that it is a good thing that the bad guys led by Stengel (Franco Ressel) have unlimited resources, because they drop like flies at every attempt to kill Sabata.

This first Sabata directed by Gianfranco Parolini is very amusing and entertaining

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 20 September 2009]

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 .

Master gunslinger takes on thieving gang

[helpless_dancer · 7/10 · 10 November 2001]

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.

Lee Van Cleef the only positive in a disappointing western

[The_Void · 6/10 · 26 August 2009]

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.

Stylish And Great Cult Spaghetti Western

[Witchfinder-General-666 · 8/10 · 18 August 2007]

Gianfranco Parolini's "Ehi Amico... C'è Sabata, Hai Chiuso!" aka. "Sabata" is a stylish and excellent Italian Cult Western starring one of the greatest Western icons of all time (THE greatest in my book), the incomparable Lee Van Cleef. Van Cleef is a blessing for any movie, and "Sabata" is, besides "For A Few Dollars More", "The Good, The Bad And The Ugly", "The Big Gundown", "Day Of Anger" and "Death Rides A Horse", one of the most important films starring this great actor. Although this film is was followed by only two sequels (one of them starring Van Cleef, the other starring Yul Brynner), the "Sabata" series could very well be described as the most important series of Spaghetti Westerns alongside the "Sartana" series starring Gianni Garko and, of course, the "Django" series (which isn't really a series, since "Django" of 1966 was followed by dozens of unofficial "sequels" that mostly had little to nothing to do with the original).

Sabata (Lee Van Cleef) is a typical antihero of the Italian Western, who longs for money and his own benefit more than for anything else. After killing a whole gang of outlaws and bringing their loot back for the money, Sabata stays in town for a while, in order to make some more money. He soon has two sidekicks, Carrincha (Ignazio Spalla) and Indio (Aldo Canti), and he furthermore runs into an old acquaintance, the constantly relaxed banjo player Banjo (William Berger)...

Lee Van Cleef is the perfect cast for Sabata, and delivers a great performance in the lead as always. Another highlight of this movie is William Berger, who is coolness incarnate as Banjo. Franco Ressel is great as the villain and Ignazio Spalla and Aldo Canti make two great sidekicks, especially Spalla is funny as hell. The movie is perfectly photographed in the Spanish Alméria, the greatest location for a Spaghetti Western, and very stylish from the first minute. The score is great, especially Banjo's theme, which he constantly plays on his banjo, is a great piece of soundtrack and a very catchy tune that I'll never forget. "Sabata" is an essential Spaghetti Western and a great film in any aspect, and fans of the Italian Western can not afford to miss this. Highly recommended.

A hit that holds up very well

[ofumalow · 7/10 · 3 February 2021]

I generally prefer the more macabre, grim spaghetti westerns, but this one manages to strike a primarily comedic note without becoming buffoonish. It's not a surprise that it was a hit, because while wildly original in any particular way, it nonetheless feels fresh, and all the actors seem to be enjoying themselves in nicely delineated roles.

Van Cleef's smirking cool is perfectly deployed, complemented by Ignazio Spalla's Sancho Panza-like sidekick. William Berger is great as sort of a droll Wild West beatnik (his bongos are a banjo-and his banjo is also a gun) whose loyalties are playfully perverse. Main villain Franco Ressel is detestable, yet underplayed enough that he doesn't QUITE become the homophobic cliche he keeps threatening to be. And brawny stuntman Aldo Canti (who was later killed due to his apparent mob connections) is fun as a serenely mute "injun" acrobat-a role so entirely physical it's almost like a dance performance. The women's roles aren't so hot, but hey--they never are in spaghetti westerns. It's interesting how completely marginalized the leading lady is compared to the intense chemistry between Santana and both the villain and frenemy Banjo, two relationships whose smirking, who's-the-cat-and-who's-the-mouse dynamic is almost like flirtation.

In terms of action and overall style, the film isn't remarkable, but it's above-average, and as played, the characters are so engaging this is the rare spag western that actually floats on the entertainment value of those (mostly adversarial) relationships. It's also got a very good, diverse score by Marcello Giombini that both utilizes and expands the usual sonic palatte for the genre. So many of these movies, particularly by this point, feel like clock-punching endeavors in which no one thought they were doing anything special, or even halfway decent. But "Sabata" feels like everyone involved actually thought they were making a good movie, and made an effort to rise to the occasion.

Lukewarm Spaghetti

[FightingWesterner · 5/10 · 10 May 2010]

Sabata (Lee Van Cleef) rescues a fortune in stolen government money from a gang of burglars and goes up against the big-shot who orchestrated the heist, as well as a bunch of shifty locals, when he offers to keep his mouth shut for a price.

An attempt to cash in on Van Cleef's characters from For A Few Dollars More and The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly, the character of Sabata is a bit of a Colonel Mortimer clone.

Lee Van Cleef is pretty cool, the direction fine, and the production values above average. The real problem with the film lies in the script, which isn't as exciting as it could (or should) have been. It's just a little too talky and uninvolved.

As far as the sequels go, I'd say skip them, unless you're a hardcore Italian western fan. The Sabata series is probably the worst of all the healthy-budgeted spaghetti westerns. It's a shame too.

Van Cleef Rules!

[ster2001 · 10/10 · 28 September 2003]

I tried for a long time to get this film on a good dvd (a japanese boxed set that is now out of print). I love spaghetti westerns and this is one of the best after the Leone films. Very toungue in cheek but still fun and action packed. I can't believe this isn't readily available, not even on VHS. Lee van Cleef was excellent. I wish there were stars like him around today but it seems he's part of an era that is gone forever. Dig those Zoom shots!!

Interesting but average spaghetti western

[ilBuono · 7/10 · 30 August 2013]

'Sabata' begins with a compelling exuberant country tune, in which people chant 'Ehi amico... c'è Sabata, hai chiuso!'. Exiting and snappy like only an Italian spaghetti western can be. Imagewise the same feeling for style and absurdity is present, there are some interesting shots with equally interesting camera angles. Soon Lee Van Cleef enters the picture.

So you think you're in for a treat. But, despite the obvious creativity and originality, it's not a very good movie and could have been a lot more fun than it is. Lee Van Cleef and William Berger give life to interesting characters, as you should expect. Sabata's a mixture of LVC's persona in For a few dollars more and James Bond and showcases inventive ways of killing people. Berger's fine as the enigmatic Banjo, who plays, well yeah, a banjo. The irritating Pedro Sanchez character and the ridiculousness of the Alley Cat character are something else.

But the real evildoer in this movie is the muddled plot. It's incoherent, drags and you never know when it will end. The movie is a bit longer than an hour and a half, but it certainly feels like a much longer movie.

But not to want to sound too negative, it's still fun to watch. There are enough interesting ideas and fine camera-work to get something out of it. Just don't expect it to be on the same level as any Sergio Leone movie.

Incredibly stylish but also a bit dumb and convoluted

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 9 December 2007]

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.

Mighty fine spaghetti western

[johnwaynefreak · 20 September 2002]

After years of being cast as heavys and in other supporting roles (High Noon, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance), by the time Lee Van Cleef was considered a true star, it seemed he'd stick himself in all kinds of garbage for the accolade of top billing. While always giving a good performance, many of his films ARE trashy. This is not one of them...

Lee Van Cleef stars as the mysterious gunslinger of the title, dressed in black. *POSSIBLE SPOILER* He's out to get the town of Daugherty's elite, who at the start of the film, rob $100,000 from an army safe to buy up the land over which the railway is gonna pass. His character here is not dissimilar from the Colonel in "For A Few Dollars More", as he comes fully equipped with a crack shot arsenal of weapons. In fact, I don't recall him missing once in the movie.

William Berger (a spaghetti western regular) stars as Banjo, a guy who'd double cross anyone if the money was good. The character of Banjo is also enigmatic, and perhaps even more interesting than that of Sabata; it's a shame he wasn't bought back for the sequels.

All in all, Sabata makes for perfect late night escapism. As a spaghetti western, it's up there with "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" and is a thoroughly enjoyable movie that keeps it's tongue firmly in cheek. If you're looking for a stylish spaghetti western outside of Sergio Leone territory, this is the one. Try to see it in widescreen.

One of the best spaghetti westerns from Italy

[slippersofagility · 7/10 · 12 March 2021]

Skillful gunfighter, Sabata arrives in a small town in the west to quickly find that outlaws robbed the bank and stole 100.000$. He quickly tracks them down and delivers them to the local sheriff for the reward. He soon discovers that the robbers were hired by the bank owners and must team up with a beggar and a banjo player to fight them. Sabata is the first film of the Sabata trilogy and is easily one of the best westerns from Italy. It's characters are very memorable. Van Cleef portrays the anti hero Sabata perfectly who will do anything for money while the actor playing the beggar is surprisingly funny to this day. Sabata is action packed with a comedic style as in many spaghetti westerns of the era. The plot is decent and there are some twists to keep you entertained until the end. If you love westerns and you haven't seen this, then I definitely recommend it.

A rifle that never misses, a pistol that shoots two ways, and a look that means you're dead before you draw...

[utgard14 · 7/10 · 3 September 2014]

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.

"A wise man keeps his pistons".

[lost-in-limbo · 7/10 · 9 September 2011]

Lee Van Cleef makes an appearance in another spaghetti western (and boy was he churning them out during this period) as a solider of fortune Sabata looking to squeeze out $100,000, which was contained in an army safe that was stolen. To only be retrieved by Sabata. There's nothing new here to make it a classic of its inflated sub-genre, but it's an earnestly competent spaghetti western with outlandish flashes of style and an ideal star in the steely glare of actor Lee Van Cleef. Quite comedic in parts, but the old-hat story is the usual collection of ideas, clichés and developments that sees characters teaming up, while also trying to outwit each other. It's a card game of sorts, as who can out bluff who and gain the upper hand. It's a coin toss to which way it can go. The pacing is laid-back, but the camera smoothly follows the action with dramatic zooms and some rousing, if familiar sounding music cues. While it might not be as thrilling in its projected action set-pieces, it does bestow some hardhearted instances and agile illustrations like the frenetic opening and closing sequences with the traditional standoff. Then you got the igniting combination between the actors. William Berger (who's deadly with a banjo), Ignazio Spalla and the acrobatic Aldo Canti. These three make an interesting rapport with Cleef's honourable character. The villains are played with starch by Franco Ressel, Claudio Undari and Gianni Rizzo. Systematic, but lively Italian western.

"Finally his luck ran out".

The best westerns are Italian and heres a great example of that !

[pkzeewiz · 7/10 · 6 May 2010]

Lee Van Cleef is Sabata, a fast shooting man in black with gun sight eyes and a Winchester that can out distance anyone. He meets up with some rather wild Mexicans and they blackmail some town officials who are crooks into giving them more and more money. The mayor and his boys wont give the money up and hire everyone they can to kill Sabata including his old friend Banjo, but no one can bring Sabata down.

I love these kind of westerns. I can watch them all day. They seem perfect in almost every war. The only thing that kills the perfection is the stories do leave a little bit to be desired. During this era they were dishing out westerns as fast as they could make them, and although beautiful and brilliant with great direction, and good actors the stories often clashed and kept them from being 100 percent perfect.

Frank Kramer's direction is some of the best I have ever seen. It is breathtaking. He co-wrote this trilogy with Renato Izzo and they work well together. Lee Van Cleef is one of my heroes and does so good in the title role. His fat Mexican compadre played by Pedro Sanchez was wonderful too. I really loved the acrobat Alley Cat played by Bruno Ukmar, and the judge played by Gianni Rizzo and of course Banjo (William Berger) all made for a great cast.

The music was wonderful and set the pace, and speaking of pace, this movie didn't waste time with boring dialog or romance or anything it got right to the action which was great. I also loved how Sabata has bullets in the butt of his gun making for a surprise.

I highly recommend this to any western fan...such a great film. 7/10 stars

One of the better westerns to come out of Italy

[dbborroughs · 8/10 · 24 November 2005]

Lee Van Cleef stars in the first of the Sabata films. Here he plays cat and mouse games with the leaders of a town who have attempted to steal an army payroll. Sabata stops their scheme and then attempts to blackmail them for his silence, a price that climbs with each failed attempt on his life.

This is a fun western full of great action, twists and wisecracks. Van Cleef is the perfect western hero, a man of few words (and most of them smart ass remarks) he is clearly up to something, although what it is is never fully apparent. He is enjoyably helped by Carrincha a large civil war hero who is forever broke, and his pal a tall silent acrobat. The pair make for one of the best sidekick teams I've ever run across. Also wandering through the film is William Berger as Banjo, a man of decidedly mercenary loyalties, who is Sabata's equal in cracking wise, and who is forever waiting for the right angle to act act upon.

I really liked this movie a great deal, even if it really isn't clear whats going on at times. The main flaw of the movie is that after the first twenty minutes the film simply becomes attempts to blackmail the town fathers by our hero and their attempts to kill him. There's nothing wrong with this since the see saw battle is excellently done, rather it just engenders a sense that you're missing something since you would think something more should be happening.

Definitely one of the better westerns of I've seen. This should be something that those with a desire for good action should seek out.

Tasty Spaghetti

[Tweetienator · 6/10 · 27 June 2022]

If you are on the search for some spaghetti you get some - Sabata is one of those wonderful Western movies Italian style: it's dirty in more than just one way, people die like flies, the characters are cool, the dialogues sometimes over the top cool, and last but not least, Lee Van Cleef embodies our bad hero once again in his very own way. No doubt, Sabata is not masterclass like Once Upon a Time in the West, For A Few Dollars More or The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, but for sure a fine ride - if you like that kind of movies. The main issue I got with this one is the "fact" that the last third of Sabata meanders a little too many times around (sometimes it feels like the writers/director got an idea too many and just squeezed it in) - some cutting and focus would have improved the quality of the movie dramatically.

One of the better Westerns of the Spaghetti Variety but a long way behind the Dollars trilogy

[med_1978 · 5/10 · 4 July 2009]

I just finished watching this film and I must say I had mixed feelings. I have seen quite a few Spaghetti Westerns such as The Lee Van Cleef Vehicles Gods Gun, The Grand Duel, Gunlaw (AKA.Day of Anger), The Good Die First, Death Rides a Horse, plus The Dollars Trilogy, Madron & Once upon a time in the west etc.

I would have said this film would occupy the middle ground between the Excellent Dollars Trilogy, Once upon a time in the West, Death Rides a Horse and the total Rubbish such as The Good Die First & Gods Gun. Sabata was almost as good as Gunlaw A.K.A Day of Anger.

For me Van Cleef was very good, but the rest of the cast was somewhat lacking in any real charisma. Banjo was probably the next best thing in the film but to me did not really look the part, The movie was also too humorous for my liking and including acrobats was going too far to take seriously, although I suspect this was not to be taken all that seriously.

Linda Vera was absolutely stunning. For someone with beauty of that magnitude they should have increased her part and maybe made her a Femme Fatale type character ! The lead villain Stengel was decidedly poor and really could have been dealt with a lot quicker and easier as he did not come across as somebody to be feared. The various attempts on Sabata's life and him demanding more money each time also became quite tiresome, it seems the script writers ran out of ideas.

All in all though this film was entertaining and I would give it a 5.5 out of 10.

This ain't your grandfather's Western

[bensonmum2 · 8/10 · 12 June 2006]

The plot of Sabata sees the title character (played by Lee Van Cleef) stopping a bank robbery only to blackmail those responsible. The robbery ringleaders don't see too kindly to this and look to take out our hero and the rest of his ragtag bunch. Sabata has everything I look for in a Spaghetti Western - good gun fights, over-the-top violence, quirky characters, some nifty acrobatics, a plot that stretches credibility, and a strong anti-hero. Another thing Sabata has going for it is a sense of humor. The entire movie is done with the tongue planted firmly in cheek. If you take none of it very seriously, it's a lot of fun. Just remember - this ain't your grandfather's Western.

Other than the better known Sergio Leone films, this may be the best Spaghetti Western Lee Van Cleef made. He's almost perfect as the killer with nerves of steel capable of hitting a target at the most ridiculous of distances. He seems to always be at least two or three steps ahead of his adversaries. The supporting cast is just as good with William Berger and, in particular, Ignazio Spalla (aka Pedro Sanchez) giving nice performances. Spalla is one of the highlights for me of all the Sabata films.

Another thing I really enjoy about Sabata is the music. It's one of the better, more-catchy non-Morricone scores I've heard. I don't care how many times I've seen the movie, I always get that theme music stuck in my head. It's a silly tune, but it works for me.

Sartana to Sabata

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 16 August 2020]

That title translates as Hey buddy...That's Sabata. You're Finished! Gianfranco Parolini had gone from making Eurospy films to If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death, which was a success but the series ended up being given to director Giuliano Carnimeo.

Producer Alberto Grimaldi then got in touch with Parolini to make a new series. He had a great actor to star in it, too. Lee Van Cleef, whose work in Leone's films is teh stuff of legend. What may not be known to many is that a car crash in 1958 nearly cost the actor his life and career. He actually went into interior decorating with his second wife before getting back into movies three years later, but any time he rode a horse, he'd always be in great pain. That's kind of amazing, because for someone so well-known for being a cowboy, he gutted through it to give us all these awesome roles. What can you say for a guy whose tombstone literally says, "Best of the bad?"

Sabata is basically a man who can't be stopped. He can hit any target and has really no morals, which is a great combination for the Italian West. He carries a four-barreled derringer and a rifle that he uses to wipe out just about everyone he meets.

The one enemy that he doesn't immediately kill is Banjo (William Berger), who keeps trying to play every side against each other. He also has a great weapon that he hides in the music instrument that lends him his name.

There's drunk Civil War vet Carrincha, who throws knives at people, and his only friend, a Native American named Alley Cat who can escape anyone and is the master of acrobatics.

The bad guy here is named Stengel, one of the town's leaders who is robbing the bank to buy a railroad. Sabata learns the secret and has to deal with thugs being sent his way for the rest of the film. Stengel has a dart gun in a cane, which is pretty awesome, and he's played by Franco Ressel, who was in 121 movies, a resume which includes Hercules the Avenger, Blood and Black Lace, Password: Kill Agent Gordon, Have a Good Funeral, My Friend... Sartana Will Pay and Naked Girl Killed in the Park.

This movie is a blast - everything great about Sartana but with Lee Van Cleef as the hero instead of Gianni Garko (or George Hilton, George Martin, Jeff Cameron, William Berger, Hunt Powers, Johnny Garko, George Ardisson, Robert Widmark or the lack of anyone playing the role in a movie named Let's Go And Kill Sartana).

Spaghetti Western with Lee Van Cleef in the mold of Sergio Leone's Man with No Name trilogy

[Wuchakk · 5/10 · 22 March 2018]

RELEASED IN 1969 and directed by Gianfranco Parolini, "Sabata" chronicles events in a west Texas town when a black-clad gunfighter named Sabata (Lee Van Cleef) teams-up with an alcoholic ex-soldier named Carrincha (Ignazio Spalla) and an acrobatic Indian (Bruno Ukmar) to thwart the town leaders (Antonio Gradoli & Gianni Rizzo) who want to steal $100,000 from their own bank to purchase land that the encroaching railroad will cross. William Berger plays a minstrel of dubious loyalties while Franco Ressel is on hand as the effeminate heavy. Linda Veras appears as the stock saloon babe.

This was the first of the official Sabata trilogy released in 1969-1971. There were four other Sabata films released in 1970-1972, but they were considered unofficial imitations. The only other Sabata flick I've seen is the third imitation one, "Dig Your Grave, Friend... Sabata's Coming," with Raf Baldassarre in the eponymous role. While that one lacked Van Cleef, the story is more compelling than this debut.

"Sabata" starts promisingly enough with a colorful cast of characters and an innovative bank robbery, but the story bogs down in the second act and tries to make up for it with an action-packed climax and typical Italo Western epilogue (think "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly"). Speaking of which, "Sabata" is reminiscent of Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy. Van Cleef simply takes over the Eastwood role while Spalla is basically a re-dressed Tuco.

Thankfully, there are original elements, like the acrobatic Native and the effeminate kingpin. Still, as with most Spaghetti Westerns, the characters are cardboard-thin caricatures rather than three-dimensional people, which limits their appeal and prevents the story from having much suspense. The usual goofy absurdities don't help.

THE MOVIE RUNS 1 hour 51 minutes and was shot in Almería, Spain and (studio) Rome. WRITERS: Parolini and Renato Izzo.

GRADE: C