A Man Called Blade / Mannaja (Sergio Martino, 1977)

A Bullet For the General bad? Wrong amigo, dead wrong! (flips open pancho)

Mannaja was a massive disappointment for me, a sleazy spag western with intentionally hideous aesthetics about a guy that brings tomahawks to a gunfight? Iā€™m in! But hell fuck no it sucked bad. The opening scene got me pumped up for a whole lot of nothing, this movie DRAAGGGGGGED. A western about a guy that throw hatchets should have a bit of pep in its step, I dunno what the fuck went wrong but I cannot sit through this movie again. All I remember is the end is the same as Fistful of Dollars with Mannaja hiding out in a cave making caveman looking stone tomahawks that wouldnā€™t cut unbaked bread. Too slow too little too late, R.I.P. spag westerns!

Letā€™s seeā€¦ Mannaja was to me the last hope for the spaghetti western genre. Unfortunately it was too late to make an impact. The last few years 73-77 we see only a handful of great SWā€™s like Keoma, Four Gunmen of the Apocalypse, California, and Cut-throats Nine. The only problem, I had with this movie was two things first off that horrible music score in the beginning and when Burt Craven nurses Blade back to health for Christā€™s sake Blade took the mans hand off in the awesome opening scene of the movie. This movie is in my top 20 list and it really impressed me overall. I know some reviews knock director Sergio Martino as a hack director but he did a great job with this one. The music also got better as the movie progressed. I think for Maurizio Merliā€™s only contribution to the genre he did an excellent job as the bounty hunter Blade. It was funny to read the actor John Steiner (Voller) was afraid of horses and the trick they used to make him appear riding oneā€¦ I know allot of SW fans do not care much for this flick but for a genre that was inevitably dying this movie was a gem in my opinion.

Very controversial discussion concerning ā€œMannajaā€ here. I never had this movie on my watch-list. But now after reading this thread Iā€™m really curious for Merliā€™s one and only SW. Maybe the ā€œstrangenessā€ of that movie (dark, gloomy, Tomahawks instead of guns etc.) is due to the attempt to reinvent or reanimate the dying genre of SW by adding some new innovative aspects. The result is obviously a matter of taste - neverteheless Iā€™m curious about it, will watch it in the next few daysā€¦

A bit disappointed about this one. I think it was set up to be more violent and didnā€™t really deliver. Itā€™s still an avobe average one and the performances were pretty good from everybody.
The out of tune male vocalist wasnā€™t as annoying here as he was in Keoma though. What the hell was the problem of the De Angeli brothers anyway.

I re-watched Mannaja and I enjoyed it much more the second time. I reminded me on two westerns: Keoma and E Dio disso a Caino. Mannaja has some creepy atmosphere and violent scenes. The beginning with the hand-off scene and the screaming victim is memorable.
The Music was made by the Angelis Brothers who also composed the score for Keoma. IMO the Mannaja Song without any annoying crying is better. Some lines of the song made me smile: He wants justice and loves peace ā€¦ Donā€™t have the feeling that Mannaja is a peace loving man.
;D

Yap

[quote=ā€œPaco Roman, post:185, topic:292ā€]Some lines of the song made me smile: He wants justice and loves peace ā€¦ Donā€™t have the feeling that Mannaja is a peace loving man.
;D[/quote]
those spaghetti songs sometimes donĀ“t correspond with a true nature of heroes very well, thatĀ“s right -
when he chops off Donald OĀ“BrienĀ“s hand for nothing, that was very peaceful of him - he was just big peaceful motherfucker

Watched that movie last night. Taken all in all - definitely not a masterpiece but IMO a highly entertaining, enjoyable and well done SW. Sure, the scene in which Mannaja finds accidentally some needful things under his blanket in order to manufacture a few Tomahawks is ridiculous. But to me this seems to be the only flaw. Especially the opening scene is full of creepy atmosphere and very well directed. Maurizio Merli as an actor is doing a good job and even the soundtrack is unusual but catchy (first I thought something was wrong with my speakers). Mannaja was my first of the ā€œmodernā€ SW to watch. I havenā€™t seen ā€œKeomaā€, ā€œCaliforniaā€, ā€œFour of the Apocalypseā€ or ā€œBlindmanā€ so far but now after watching Mannaja added them to my watch-list.

I really like this, just wish Merli did a few more westerns.

And a few more crime films with Lenzi as well :slight_smile:

Mannaja: A Man Called Blade (Martino/77)

Mannaja: A Man Clalled Blade (1977) is one of the last true Spaghetti Westerns, being made almost at the end of the ailing genres decline. It is directed by Sergio Martino and stars seventies Italian crime movie veteran Maurizio Merli as the eponymous (anti-)hero as well as John Steiner and Donald Oā€™Brien.

The screenplay was written by the director and is about a bounty hunter, Mannaja/Blade (who is armed with a hatchet instead of a gun), arriving in the mining town of Suttonville attempting to claim the bounty on the outlaw Burt Craven (Oā€™Brian). Here though, he runs into trouble with the unscrupulous Theo Waller (Steiner) and mine owner Edward M. McGowan (Philippe Leroy).

If the script is rather formulaic, the presentation is not, which despite borrowing a few ideas from some of Sergio Corbucciā€™s Westerns, this is a mean and moody film. After a very atmospheric opening where Mannaja hunts down Craven, he enters a town which is a sea of mud and miners dying from the dust they breathe in from the silver mine while lorded over by the puritanical McGowan. This is hardly a light-hearted film; Mannaja is a man with vengeance in his heart and neither he nor his enemies have any qualms over killing to achieve their goal.

Martinoā€™s direction is the chief attraction here, as along with cinematographer Federico Zanni, he conjures, a cold, wet, muddy landscape for his characters to briefly live and then die in. Merli is good as Mannaja, although playing a silent, tough bounty hunter hardly seems to be stretching him as an actor. Steiner is excellent as the villain, clearly relishing his role. This music by Guido and Maurizio De Angelis is impressive, very different from anything Ennio Morricone did in the genre. Unfortunately the title song played over the beginning and then subsequently at various points throughout the film, is just plain awful, like a cut-price clone of Leonard Cohen singing while drunk. That is only a slight negative however in this superb Spaghetti Western from the twilight era of the genre.

Martino did a good job on this movie, therefore it is little incomprehensible to me, why he made such a silly movie like 2019 After The Fall Of New York

What? 2019 rocked. I like it a lot more than Mannaja. His other sci-fi flick Hands of Steel was a lot of fun too. But being honest, I donā€™t think Martino was never a very good director. I havenā€™t seen his giallos, but the movies I saw were fun trash with the occasional decent shot but nothing more than that.

Enjoy 2019 aswell, good fun.

2019 is fun to watch, of course - but i always wanted to watch some italian PA,
which can be compared to MillerĀ“s Mad Max or some GB or USA postapo flicks
all those CastellariĀ“s, SantiagoĀ“s, or CarnimeoĀ“s PA movies are quite trashy, although i like them :slight_smile:
when it comes to comparison spaghettis vs. GB/USA westerns there are lot of great films on both sides,
but when to italian PA vs. rest of the world - well, not much to speak of -
and directors like Castellari or Martino had potential to make a good non-trashy madmax rip-off

[quote=ā€œcochino, post:192, topic:292ā€]I havenā€™t seen his giallos.[/quote]He made some crackers. Check out The Strange Vice of Mrs.Wardh :wink:

I lied. Iā€™ve seen Torso and been underwhelmed by it.
The problem about the Italian PA and sci-fi in general by the 80s was the budget. In that kind of movies you can tell when there was a budget or not. Iā€™ve seen an interview with George Eastman where he said that the problem with those movies is that they were very low budget and in that aspect they couldnā€™t even compete with the movies from Hollywood or other places.

The low budget, tacky sets and stupid costumes are all part of the appeal to me :smiley: .

2019 looks like it had a solid budget for italian PA. CastellariĀ“s New Barbarians or CarnimeoĀ“s Gli sterminatori or even some Santiago movies maybe looks little cheaper but all of them have cool cars, explosions, trucks, machineguns, even armiesā€¦ But it really doesnĀ“t matter. Many spaghetties were also cheap movies and they are great.
Actually, i think CastellariĀ“s 1990 : Bronx Warriors had biggest potential to be a serious PA movie, but spoiled by some boring scenes and weak ending.

Yeah, I know about some Spaghettis being low budget yet great but I donā€™t think the budget is so important in the final results as in Sci fi. Besides plenty of the cheapest SW used costumes, scenography and props from bigger budget movies but I donā€™t think there was a big budget Sci fi movie in Italy, at least not in that period. Of course you could still pull out a decent result if youā€™re talented enough, you have Bavaā€™s Planet of the Vampires which is pretty good and very low budget, but the PA genre was never approached by any of the most talented directors. Castellari, Martino and Carnimeo have their charms but theyā€™re far from having the talents of Leone or Bava (just to name two) that pulled off some timeless classics from very low budgets.

actually i like some CastellariĀ“s westerns more than some LeoneĀ“s :slight_smile:
he just could make sort of Keoma PA, but with bikes and cars instead of horses, and it could take place in some outback just like Mad Max,
nothing very difficult about that
iĀ“m not sure if Bava is in the same category as Leone - and i always thought Planet of the Vampires was lame movie, but iĀ“ve seen it a long time ago, so, maybe i would have a different opinion nowadays