Scott LeBrun The original "Sabata" is just good, solid Spaghetti Western escapism directed with flair by Gianfranco Parolini. It benefits from an interesting bunch of characters, "good" guys and bad guys alike, characters who are all zestfully played by a well chosen cast. The music by Marcello Giombini is good enough to rival the work of Ennio Morricone, with eclectic use of banjos and organs. The picture is extremely well shot in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio by Sandro Mancori, with great use of Spanish and Italian locations. Of course, what really makes it irresistible is the presence of Lee Van Cleef, who's deliciously devious as the title character. He was truly a natural for this type of film.Sabata is a mysterious gunslinger who comes to the small town of Daugherty City. One night, an ingenious plot to remove an Army safe from the town bank is pulled off. What Sabata learns is that it's the arrogant fat cats in town who masterminded the theft so that they could purchase land on which a railroad will be built. What follows is that Sabata makes a number of attempts to blackmail these pompous jerks, constantly increasing his price, while they keep trying to keep him quiet. Fortunately, Sabata has made alliances with characters such as Carrincha (Ignazio Spalla) and the mute, acrobatic "Alley Cat" (Bruno Ukmar).Van Cleef is fun, but so too is the charismatic William Berger as the musician "Banjo". He's just as hard to read as Sabata; you're always wondering what his deal is. Certainly the viewer realizes that this plot will come complete with double crosses and twists, and that makes it quite amusing, as well as the fact that Sabata never runs out of tricks that he can play on the enemy. In addition to the plethora of gunplay and the high body count, it's the craftiness of Sabata and Banjo that is the most entertaining element of the film. The supporting cast is solid: Franco Ressel as creepy villain Stengel, Antonio Gradoli as his associate Ferguson, very lovely Linda Veras as female lead Jane, Claudio Undari as Stengels' goon Oswald, Gianni Rizzo as Judge O'Hara, and ubiquitous Luciano Pigozzi as "Father Brown".The finale is quite enjoyable, with a nice bunch of twists and a good laugh at the end.Fans of this genre will likely dig this one.Eight out of 10.

ilBuono '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.

med_1978 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.

LosDiablo I watched this for the first time last night and really enjoyed it its the best western I've seen for a while I'm surprised it hasn,t got more of a following.it stars lee van cleef as sabata a gunslinger with a unique arsenal (how cool is that derringer) who rights wrongs done by criminal elements. along the way he meets up with a few unique characters a acrobatic mute Indian ally cat, a local bandit carrincha and an enigmatic banjo player who sabata has met before. Even the bad guys aren,t your typical western criminals. i was surprised how action packed it was. and how different some of the action was to usual gun play in westerns. this is easily lee van cleefs best work since the dollar films.A must for any lee van cleef fan