The lack of a loaded computer yesterday prevented me from keeping my promise of a quick catch-up documentation of my viewing, but here we go:
Sabata (Gianfranco Parolini, 1969)
After my joyful revisit of Death Rides A Horse i figured it would be refreshing to watch another LVC vehicle. It may not be a truly good movie in terms of plot (i’ve never been a huge fan of those Sartana-style gadget-shoot’em ups based around a huge amount of gold which everyone tries to get their hands on), but it’s well executed trough and trough and the obvious and refreshingly big budget helps a good deal in this case. Rarely did an Italian western set look so vivid and beautiful as Elios does here.
The cast is good, too, although i’ve yet to warm up entirely to the sidekicks; Carrincha is generally an entertaining character, but a bit too over-the-top at times, while Alley Cat feels like some character from an interwar-era B-movie, and does not belong to the few well handled depictions of Native Americans in SW:s. In a way, he’s used too much and too little at the same time - too little to get developed enough, and too much to avoid my slight, well, not really annoyance, but i overall just don’t feel he is likeable enough to outshine the slight mentioned feeling of a flat stereotype rather than a more dynamic character. On the other hand, there’s William Berger as Banjo - whom i liked more this time around - and Franco Ressell as Stengel, a truly entertaining villain.
The one thing that bugs me about this film is the plot. Yes, it was never meant to be an intelligent plot-driven movie, and it serves its purpose well for the most part, but i think the twists and turns are driven one step too far - maybe one of the various people hired to kill our hero in the first half could have been cut out. This is mostly an issue which could have been resolved by trimming the length - 107 minutes is simply a bit oversized for this type of plot.
On the other hand, this kind of plot unlocks a certain joyful feeling when you watch it. Had the bad guys been humiliated and/or disarmed instead of killed this could almost have been a Lucky Luke adaptation. Ok, Luke would never have intended to blackmail the villains for selfish reasons, and Goscinny would probably have come up with a slightly more sophisticated script, but you get the same lighthearted invincible western hero feeling that takes you back tho better times
For what it is, this is at least as entertaining as most american matinee action-adventures from the same era. I tend to agree with Alex Cox overall verdict; Not truly great, but entertaining and the best of the “circus” westerns. If anything, the good mood it put me in and the general entertainment value - maybe more so than some titles previously close to my top 20 - may cause it to grow further for me personally. And did i mention that it stars Lee Van Cleef as a laconic anti-hero, which he does really well and rounded as usual? That alone is a huge advantage.
7/10 for this likeable matinee western action-adventure.
