Leone Admirer's (not giving the movie a proper chance
) review from his SW Virgins Guide:-
Sabata
A film that ultimatly doesn't deliver, Sabata is still a little fun if heavily flawed western, saved by Van Cleefs performance and likeable personality.
As Sabata (Lee Van Cleef) enters town, three pillars of society have arranged for the bank, which for a brief time holds $100,000 of army money, to be robbed so that they can buy land. Sabata is able to find the money and foil their plans, but decides to stay in town, to find out what else the head villain, Stengel (Franco Ressel) has in store. He teams up with an ex army man Carrincha (Ignazio Spalla) and a mute called Alley Cat. In town he meets and ex friend called Banjo (Wiliam Berger) whos calling mark is his Banjo, and Sabata has to decided whether Banjo this time round is either friend or fo.
The films opening is arresting, a stranger rides into town, which is shown through the riders POV, as the gang prepare to rob the bank. Once we establish that its Sabata that has entered the town we are shown his powers and his gun before the bank is robbed.
Sabata has many elements to make it a good, film, however these elements are either taken to the extreme or not used enough and this seriously hurts the film.
The film doesn't take itself too seriously, and this is shown in the ludicrous actions and gadgets that the characters have. Everything to dart guns, banjo guns (!) long firing rifles, staff guns, guns in bags you name it, it'll have a gun in it. This over reliance on the gadgets ruins the film, which is a shame because some, the gun in the bag and the two barreled gun that Sabata carries are interesting, but are then used too much. For me, the banjo gun was a step too far, also I wanted the annoying banjo to die in that scene.
The use of circus performers, whilst adding to a sureal atmosphere do not help the film either. Seeing the Alley Cat doing cart wheels and large jumps just made him look like a spare wheel, as if the part written in the script was quite small and the actor and director (Gianfranco Parolini) had decided to increase his part.
The film is also worst hit by the pathetic villain, Stengel. It seems that who ever was dubbing Ressel couldn't settle on either an English or German accent, and his overt feminine looks, I have to admit when he first came on screen, with the way he had been costumed he really did look like a man in drag, does not make an very effective villain.
As said before, its Van Cleef as Sabata that saves the movie from being a complete waste of precious celluloid. The film tries to make a statement from the begining that in this film he is different. They substitue his usual pipe smoking for a short cigar aka Clint. He seems a much for friendly and generous type of man in this film and perhaps Cleef feels, and I think looks a bt uncomfortable, when he is gently laughing to the 'humerous' playing of Alley Cat. The thing that I don't like about the character of Sabata (and this isn't down to Cleef) is that he is played as some kind of Superhero. He can throw a coin for some distance and be accuarate, he has an endless array of guns and gadgets and he is seemingly invincible. This adds to the light hearted aspect of the film but for me I didn't like it.
William Berger's character of Banjo was an annoying loner who played irritating tunes on his banjo, boy was I glad when Sabata took a shot at it and hit. The character, whilst irritating does give some drama and conflict to a story thats lacking because of its inept villain. Berger's smug grin got on my nerves and I couldn't wait for him to disapear off screen, only near the end are we glad to see banjo, but for a different reason.
Direction was overall tight by Parolini, he seemed to handle most action scenes well, building up tension. Others suffered from being too short or not having enough build up. Editing was of general good quality, as was the cinematography which made excellent use of the Spanish and Italian locations. Music was another low point of the movie, Sabata's theme was OK, but the annoying banjo and the use of very sparse music at other points during the feature hurt the film and allowed it to drag in some places.
This film can be bought as part of The Sabata Trilogy Collection R1 DVD set which contains the three Sabata films, Sabata, Adios Sabata and Return of Sabata. I believe that the A/V is the same between R1 and R2 but if your a Sabata fan it may be worth buying the R1 set, though R2 buyers be warned, it contains the RCE coding.
The DVD I watched was the MGM R2 version of the film. The picture quality was great, sharp, good colors, it was a bit muted but I believe that was the style that the director and DP, had chosen, and there was little print damage. The Mono soundtrack was also very good and is offered with German, French and Spanish Mono.
There are no extras on this DVD, an annoying anti-piracy advert (I am against piracy but you can't skip the bloody thing and its a really rubbish advert) and has poor menu design.
The film was overall a disapointment for me, Cleef was good but the rest of the film was below average. People who like Sabata will most likely own the R1 or R2 DVD's and will encourage people to watch it. Personally I would only recomend this film to Cleef fans and newcomers who liked the humerous sides of the spaghetti's.
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