Return of Sabata (1971)

I love this movie so much

Why so much hype?

Crappy film

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

"The Return of Sabata" is not quite as bad as some reviewers make it out to be, nor quite as good either. It's not quite funny enough to be a comedy, or dark enough to be a drama. Its primary characteristic is the confusion of the plot; it's not that there are many twists and turns, as much as the basic points of the plot never make much sense. Some reviewers suggest watching it a couple of times to unravel the strands of disorder – but it is not really good enough to watch more than once.If you read this before watching the movie, here is what you should think about as you view it: the bad guy, Joe McIntock, has three sets of hard assets: the real money, the counterfeit money, and the gold. How are they related? What exactly are McCintock's and Sabata's goals and plans regarding them? I was not able to figure it out in one viewing. But I did not even realize these were the issues until it was too late.All spaghetti westerns are deliberately odd, but there are some noteworthy things to look for here: 1. In the original Sabato, Lee Van Cleef is bald, his natural look. In the one scene in which he appears without a hat here, though, he has a lustrous head of silver hair.2. Pedro Sanchez, who appears here in his third Sabata movie (he is Van Cleef's chubby sidekick), was dubbed in the first two Sabatas by an actor with a Mexican accent. Here, however, he has an American-Western accent, but occasionally slides back into a slight Spanish accent. It is all very disconcerting.3. The theme song states emphatically that Sabata is "nine-fingered". IMDb suggests that this is not quite accurate, that actually he was missing the "last joint of his middle finger".4. The movie features the most beautiful dance hall girls of any western I have ever seen. McIntock's wife, played by Jacqueline Alexandre, an only occasional actress, is also stunningly beautiful.In sum, "The Return of Sabata" is nothing great, but watching Lee Van Cleef is never a waste of one's time.

Apparently THE RETURN OF SABATA made the 50 Worst Films Of All Time book by Michael Medved but does it really belong there ? From a analytical film student point of view you can claim it's no different from the films of Sergio Leone in that it contains a Marxist slant as to what is the root of all evil . From the outset the audience are told via one of those songs so terrible and yet so infectious it stays in your mind for days:" if you want to make money if you want to be rich you have to be a son of a Dumb Dumb Dumb Dumb " Wow what a great idea it would be if we abolished currency , wealth and conditioned people in to not being greedy . What's that you're saying ? It's been tried and it didn't work . Ah yes I remember . One other thing that doesn't work is the plot mechanics of this movie which left me totally confused as to where it might be going . Something to do with an Irish gang wanting to get their hands on some gold and Lee Van Cleef as Sabata trying to stop them because he wants the gold . Why should Sabata get the gold instead of the Irishmen ? I have no idea The difference between this and Sergio Leone is in the use of humour . At least Leone could make use of black comedy . Here there's no similar feel and it has an overbearingly silly light hearted air to it including a couple of circus acrobats . In many ways it resembles one of those Westerns featuring Terence Hill and Bud Spencer rather than gritty spaghetti Western fodder . It is watchable which stops it from being one of the worst films ever made

Sabata (Lee Van Cleef) is working as a trick-shooter in some sort of psychedelic sideshow, when he runs afoul of a local big-wig by refusing to pay the town's excessive sales taxes. Also, there's a lady-killer lurking about and Sabata's shifty war-buddy hanging around.The production values are good, as is Van Cleef and his assortment of wonderful toys. However, the whole movie is pretty silly and the script a rambling, sometimes confusing mess (Who killed the girl and why?), with a plot that takes too much time to develop.In all, Return Of Sabata is mostly forgettable, with a few good moments surrounded by way too much talk. As a fan of Lee Van Cleef, I wanted very much to like this more than I ultimately did.

The third and last film in the Sabata-series is only slightly better than ADIÓS, SABATA. Lee Van Cleef is back as Sabata and his presence by itself is enough to make this a better movie than the second one with Yul Brynner. Still, Van Cleef can't entirely make up for the awful script and the attempts for comedy. The "gags" in this film are total misfires. Sometimes, Van Cleef is even required to act like a clown. His clothing too isn't as cool as it was in the superior first SABATA. And, excuse me, Sabata as a circus act????????This all reminded me a bit of the SCREAM-trilogy, with the exception that the second film there was much better than here. The superior first one and the weak third one are however very similar in both series. Why all those unnecessary sequels? Why not leave people with the memory of a good film and not with that of some bad sequels? 4/10