Sartana(1968):review and plot reconstruction

[Banjo]

another thing we can agree on, Sartana uses the phrase "another man" too much when he tells stories.

I think so too.

Are there any other ambiguities we need to work on?(I really don't buy into any love affair blackmail.)

I was certain that Lasky/Morgan weren't hired by Stool/Holman(and were just trying to blackmail them as well as steal the gold) as suggested in the dvd sleeve notes but while having another look at Sartana today the bankers mention something like "it would've been foolish to leave the gold in the hands of Tampico and his men,just like it would've been to leave it with Lasky and his men" which gave me cause to doubt my own theory but i guess this didn't necessarily mean Lasky/Morgan were in the bankers employ.Maybe the bankers had considered hiring Lasky but decided Tampico was a safer bet.
  For what its worth Thomas Weissers Sartana write up appears to concur with my theory stating that "a gold shipment is robbed by snuff-sniffing Lasky" and that "Lasky & his sidekick Morgan decide to blackmail the original gold thieves".

[Silenzio]

I think so too.

Are there any other ambiguities we need to work on?(I really don't buy into any love affair blackmail.)

I was certain that Lasky/Morgan weren't hired by Stool/Holman(and were just trying to blackmail them as well as steal the gold) as suggested in the dvd sleeve notes but while having another look at Sartana today the bankers mention something like "it would've been foolish to leave the gold in the hands of Tampico and his men,just like it would've been to leave it with Lasky and his men" which gave me cause to doubt my own theory but i guess this didn't necessarily mean Lasky/Morgan were in the bankers employ.Maybe the bankers had considered hiring Lasky but decided Tampico was a safer bet.
  For what its worth Thomas Weissers Sartana write up appears to concur with my theory stating that "a gold shipment is robbed by snuff-sniffing Lasky" and that "Lasky & his sidekick Morgan decide to blackmail the original gold thieves".

Everything is cleared up for me now, except I will feel kind of empty inside with just having to assume that the "other men" sartana talks about are just people we never see. 

[Banjo]

Everything is cleared up for me now, except I will feel kind of empty inside with just having to assume that the "other men" sartana talks about are just people we never see. 

Just think of it similar situation to the man Indio describes,but who we never see, who made the drinks cabinet disguised as the El Paso safe in FAFDM.



 


 

[Silenzio]

Just think of it similar situation to the man Indio describes,but who we never see, who made the drinks cabinet disguised as the El Paso safe in FAFDM.



 


 

Yeah, I guess I can.    Except I assumed that the guy Indio shoots the moment he is freed is that man.

[The Firecracker]

Yeah, I guess I can.    Except I assumed that the guy Indio shoots the moment he is freed is that man.

I've always thought he was the carpenter as well. He has the little model of the cabinet.

[Banjo]

he is an omnipresent character in the film.  His watch is always with Sartana, and Tampico is always talking about Moreno. 

I totally agree with this omnipresence and it is very surprising that (as well as the presense of the pocket watch)such a relatively minor player should be given so many mentions in the movie and i keep wandering if i've missed something.
But i find it impossible to fit Moreno into Sartanas story other than just being one of the "band of Mexicans" that are killed by the "another man and his band".And obviously Moreno can't be the "greedy man" because Lasky and co murdered him rather than him being "hauled away by the gravedigger".

[Banjo]

I've always thought he was the carpenter as well. He has the little model of the cabinet.

A very bad example then

But surely theres a good one somewhere!

[Banjo]

Silenzio's review:-

I have to say, that with a repeat viewing, I thought this movie was awesome and a classic.  The complicated plot is one of the things that sets it aside from other spaghettis, and makes it so much more rewarding the second time around.  This was my first Garko spaghetti and he left a good, good impression.  He plays Sartana, a gunslinger who's trying to muscle in on an extremely complicated gold robbery that went down recently.  He carries with him a mythic and other-worldly aura.  In fact, some are of the opinion (myself included) that he is actually some kind of avenging phantom.  While I was watching, this having heard so much about this larger-than-life character, and how much he had been built up, I was not disappointed.  Garko's Sartana is intriguing, he's interesting to watch, he's interesting to look at, and he even smiles from time to time in this movie.  One of the things that makes him so strange is the fact that he seems to be completely asexual.  At more than one point in the film, a woman is throwing herself at Sartana, and he shows no desires or anything, he keeps his mind completely on the gold and anything he would need to do get the gold or get Lasky, the villain (played by William Berger).  This is reinforced by the fact that he wears a huge black piece of jewelry on the finger where your wedding ring is supposed to be, like there's a big hole there, something empty. 

But enough about Sartana himself, let's talk about the movie.  This one wasn't shot in Almeria, I hear.  And it shows.  The locations look very distinct from other spaghettis.  They're not bad, but they're distinct.  The direction is pretty darn good, but not as good as it came be in Parolini's later efforts like Sabata.  Garko, Berger, and Sancho are all good, but most other supporting actors turn in a pretty wooden performance. With the exception of Kinski, that is.  I noticed that whoever dubbed Kinski had a much deeper voice than the people that usually dub him, and I dug it.  This was very important to me, because it was also my first Sancho western.  Sancho gets a great introduction in this movie.  It cuts to him strolling down the western streets in mid close-up while the music abruptly changes to this really cool guitar part.  All the music in this movie was pretty nice, but that piece was my favorite! It was just so cool.

[Rojo Ramone]

I bought the Wild East DVD, and one thing that I don't think has been brought up is the quality of the widescreen picture~it's all squished.
 Anyways, I loved everything about this movie~from the musical score to the locations.
But, the plot was a little too complicated for just one viewing.

[Silenzio]

Widscreen all squished?

Please elaborate.


It's presented in its OAR (i'm pretty sure).

[The Firecracker]

It's presented in its OAR (i'm pretty sure).

Yeah this has me stumped as well.

[Sundance]

Yeah, the disc has a problem. I guess you could say it's non-anamorphic 1.85:1 which has an anamorphic flag (that shouldn't be there) on the disc so when you watch it with widescreen TV, the image is automatically stretched horizontally but not vertically. The problem is easily "fixed" by just using the normal zoom options (I think all widescreens tvs would have at least some sort of zoom) to play the disc like you would play a normal non-anamorphic widescreen disc.

I just don't understand why Firecracker and Silenzio hasn't had any problems with it? I thought it doesn't display properly with 4:3 TVs either, unless you incorrectly setup your player so that it thinks your TV is 16:9 (which is why when Wild East screwed up again with Gentleman Killer, they added a sticker to the box informing that the player needs to be in 16:9 mode [the advice can't be meant for widescreen TV owners since their player is in 16:9 anyways and will display the disc incorrectly because of that).

[Rojo Ramone]

I was just about to post, but Sundance beat me with a better explanation.
btw`I don't have a widescreen tv yet.
Thanks Sundance.

[Silenzio]

I get you on the first paragraph, sundance, but I haven't had any problems on my 4:3 television.  It looks fine and is 1.85:1.

[Rojo Ramone]

I set my dvd player fron 4:3 Letterbox to 16:9 in the tv display set up section and the film now plays fine~ with no information loss at the sides  
Thanks again for the tip Sundance.