Sabata (1970)

As Good As It Gets

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

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.

One of the best from the late-great Lee Van Cleef, "Sabata" is a clever, stylishly staged and somewhat unusual entry for the genre, which holds up well to repeated viewings. In familiar territory as a bounty hunter, only not for Sergio Leone this time, but fellow paisano and film auteur Gianfranco Parolini, a fine talent in his own right, who, as evidenced in this film, had some original ideas of his own. This is first and probably the best of the three Sabata films, a series known for it's gripping gun-fights, high-flying acrobats and an overall high-degree of cinematic flair; and to top things off, thanks to the stellar performances of Lee Van Cleef and Yul Brynner, these films are firmly guided by the ultra-cool, swaggering presence of some of the genre's all-time best talent. In the case of the first film Lee Van Cleef's trademark steely stare and unshakable presence impregnates virtually every minute of this classic spaghetti-western, in which you'll see old Lee gun-down dozens of villainous scoundrels, with his six-guns blasting, while his screen presence works in over-time! And once the movie has roared to a close, I can't - off the top of my head - think of any other performance of his, in ANY movie, were his swagger comes through more potently then in Sabata. Lee Van Cleef's ultra-cool-grizzled-old-gun-fighter persona simply instills this film with a distinctive and pervasive quality, which of course, in this case, is the cumulative effect of his uniquely potent screen presence, that only a handful of stars can compete with. Because as most fans of his work know, Van Cleef could play both sides of the coin with a natural ease, as he was always equally adept at playing the villain. In Sabata he's teamed up with some unique characters that do a terrific job of furthering the story, while adding much to the overall variety and character of the movie as a whole. And just how many westerns do you see that prominently feature acrobats? Only in Sabata. The lead villain is of particular mention, as he's very distinctive and after a great scene in which they go mano-a-mano, that erupts into an exchange of witticisms and gun-fire, in the villains trophy room. Ultimately old Lee finishes him of literally, with the mere flick of his thumb, because after all when you've got swagger to spare and have a silver dollar in your hand, you can do things like that. From start to finish Sabata delivers the goods (most especially it's fiery finale) and should leave no one disappointed. Because along with all the great gun-fights, Lee and his gang have so many tricks up their sleeves, as a result the movie is chocked full of fun twists, flashes of sly humor and highly-stylized visual flair. Which in light of the films distinctive sense of originality and numerous off-kilter directorial choices, naturally, this creates many colorful and unusual developments within the movie, more so then most films of the genre. Musically speaking Sabata is also quite distinctive, from it's catchy main theme, to it's unusual inclusion of a pipe organ, to the way the banjo is cleverly implemented (culminating in gunfire), Sabata indeed packs in many musical highlights. While the insanely gorgeous Linda Veras provides the movies eye-candy.What this all equals up to is the cumulative effect of a star who was very much in his prime and a director who was like-wise in his element, when their inspired collaboration, that being Sabata of course, came to be. Also it's two sequels are very much in the same vein and definitely well worth checking out. The series goes in this order Sabata 69' / Adios Sabata 70' (with Yul Brenner in the role) / Return of Sabata 71'.Ultimately the Sabata series is an extremely enjoyable romp, through high-spirited realms of spaghetti-western escapism, which should easily when you over with it's innovative approach and great acting.

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.