Sartana Does Not Forgive / Sartana non perdona / Sonora (Alfonso Balcázar, 1968)

Yes agree that version does seem cropped.

Anyone got the new Italian release yet? If so whats the quality like?

I do, received as a birthday gift a couple of days ago. The DVD it’s watchable but still a bad transfer. Lots of scratches here and there.

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I watched the german dvd. Transfer ain’t good as you can see from Bluntwolf’s review but I was more pissed because of the english subtitles, they’re not in sync with the audio and there’s lots of dialogue where the translation is missing completely. I won’t be throwing away my old tv-print dvd-r yet.

Even the film itself felt worse than I remembered. Shoot outs in the end are entertaining and I really like the theme song by Raoul though. EDIT. Singer seems to be Franco Morselli not Raoul.

I agree on everything said by koreano and bluntwolf. The weakest part is the opening, including a too long and rather poor flashback which would have been better off developed throughout the film. This done with, the rest of it is pure pleasure. A SW atmosphere so thick that you can cut it with a knife and some strong noir-ish feel as well. Someone said (about theatre I think), when you place a gun on the wall, it should be used. Here we have some women taken hostages (a small homage to Rawhide?) and a gold transport coming up, both story elements left unused. How the director could have Rosalba Neri and not make more use of her beats me. The last scenes were in bad need for another shooting, but what the heck, it’s spaghetti.

Can someone tell who is the actress playing Sartana’s wife in the flash-backs?

I’ve asked myself that a few times, same thing for the dark-haired actress in His Name Was Sam Walbash, But They Call Him Amen flashbacks.

Watched this last night. Not overly happy. The movie seems kind of bland to me. The duel-thingie with only bullet in the gun russian roulette-style is just stupid. Great score though.

I watched the Wild Coyote-release and can only repeat what Bill said above. No quality-control regarding the subtitles at all. I elected to watch it with the Italian dub and English subs. Big mistake. The subs are useless, several seconds off and and a lot of dialogue isn’t subbed at all. Very VERY disappointed. Hope the other Wild Coyote-releases are of a better standard. If I watch this release again it will be with the German dub as that at least will make some sense.

So in short, movie: so-so, DVD-release: Fail.

Shame, but one I am glad I did not purchase

Just finished it, a fairly enjoyable one. I liked the film’s mood quite a bit. Very nice score too. 3 stars.

Watched this last night, but this time it was the version with Iris Mediaset logo burnt in bottom right (as opposed to the previously seen Australian TV version).
Although it was far better pic quality, it was very jerky, but I stuck with it… cos this is a goodie :slight_smile:

Great music - the song (who by? Raoul?); moody ambient guitary-plunky stuff (slightly reminiscent of Stranger in Town, but not quite as hypnotically good); and some 1960s chanteussy stuff that make the soppy flashbacks bearable - so a mixed bag of stuff and all rather wonderful. And over 7 minutes til someone opens their gob to speak - and that’s how I like 'em - nice and sparce.

Gilbert Roland has the shiniest boots in spaghettidom and plays a sort of older, wiser, Col. Mortimer-ish role here - playing with and against the younger gunslinger in an uneasy shared alliance - even mimicing the FAFDM game-playing silliness - but with whiskey food and cigars, as well as Gilbert’s shiny boots 8) - but no hats.
And I was reminded of a warped FAFDM yet again for the final duel, which this time has the ‘father figure’ Roland as the mediator who evens the score between Elam and Martin - rather than the younger man playing that role in the earlier film.

The bit of “continuity error” in the form of the roof fall stunt, (as mentioned in the preamble on the Aussie version), looked extremely painful, and is something I remembered from my initial viewing many a year ago. That’s an Ouch! :o

As mentioned - the atmosphere that permeates this simple tale (with some unresolved and lost subplots) is magnificently spaghetti-esque - flavoured as it is with thick dollops of a sweaty bitter sauce, garnished with stubbed out cigars and an unhealthy spattering of revenge.

Alternative Top 20 for sure and 4 globs out of 5.

Franco Morselli according to Giusti.

I’ve just watched it, the Media Set version that is, with the IRIS logo prominent in the bottom right corner (Made me think of the question that was often asked to the members of Pink Floyd when they were not yet world famous: Which one of you is Pink? In this case: Which one of the women is Iris?).

It was of course in Italian, with English subs that were probably taken from an alternative source, with another language or another plying speed because some lines weren’t even close to what was heard (although a more or less similar idea was expressed) and lots of Italians lines remained untranslated. I guess the subs enable people who don’t speak Italain to follow the action, but in some cases the results are a bit laughable. In one of the flashbacks one of the characters is watching how Martin’s woman is raped by the movie’s villain, Elam. The next moment he says (in the present) to Martin, according to the subs:

“I wasn’t there!”

Which is of course nonsense. But in Italian he says:

“I didn’t do a thing!”

Which makes more sense.

Anyway, it’s not a bad print (a bit dark in some places and fullscreen while the movie original must have been in 1,85:1) and it’s not a bad movie. Awful flashback in the first minutes, a couple of subplots that went up in smoke and not enough Rosalba Neri, but lots of mean faces and even some Russian roulette Italian style. Good atmosphere.

Review coming up this weekend.

@scherpschutter:
The German 35mm print is in 1:1,37.
I guess that this is the original aspect ratio.
In cinema the aspect ratio then was probably 1:1,85 or 1:1,66 (soft matted)
The Media Set version from my knowledge is open matte.

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I’m not sure. I thought first it was open matte, but there are a couple of scenes in which heads of people are only partly visible (not necessarily, but) usually a sign that an image is cropped. It doesn’t happen too often, and the credits are okay, entirely visible (without the image being squeezed)

Here are some Screenshots from the German 35mm:

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Is the German DVD worth getting? I’ve never watched this film before.

In my opinion no unless you can understand italian or german. English subs on the disc are disaster.

That’s a shame. I really want a copy of this one. I was hoping to see it in Italian with English subtitles.

I watched it the first time in Italian without any subs, Wasn’t a great problem to understand it without understanding it.