I am sure it was not planned like this when I asked my friend and resident genre movie database, Kevin to give me a wide swath of westerns to watch for this list, that it would seem like one film's extremes would stand out in contrast to the previous one's. More than likely it is that my mind is just taking it that way because there is no true order to these films other than release date. Either way, after the teeth rattling grit and reality of The Wild Bunch, I walk into the world of Sabata, which as far as I am concerned, is a borderline Italian anime just missing the actual animation portion of it.
Sabata is many things. It is over the top. It is ridiculous. It is logic breaking. The one thing it isn't is serious.
Let's get weird, Sabata Weird, shall we?
Film #20 Sabata (1969)
Here is the imdb.com cast listing. Here is the wikipedia page about the production (by the way, there isn't much on either page... Once Upon a Time in the West this is not).
Okay, the plot. A bank has been robbed in the night with $100,000 in it. The execution of the heist is actually quite complex and requires acrobats, a team of horses, and a premade section of twin railed track to roll the safe out on.
While this is going on, we meet Sabata (Lee Van Cleef), who is listening to a drunk Civil War veteran, Carrincha, (Ignazio Spalla). Carrincha won a medal in a battle and is trying to convince Sabata to take it so he can buy a bottle of booze. He tells Sabata medals are worth nothing after the fight is over. Sabata flicks a silver coin with accuracy and ease (more on this later) into Carrincha's palm and then enters the local saloon. Carrincha will now follow him the rest of the film as a defacto sidekick.
After shooting a craps table with his gun to show people that the dice being used were loaded, Sabata provides his own dice, rolls a seven to help an older man win back his money and then leaves, not before having a pretty girl stand aside from a player piano so that he can throw a (perfectly aimed) coin in its slot to turn it on. On his way out, he sees the aftermath of the bank robbery and sets off to find the men who stole the safe.
He does. And easily picks them all off at great distance with a small rifle. He returns to town with the safe and gets an award from the US Army as it was their $100,000 in the safe.
Turns out that some of the more nefarious business leaders in town set up the robbery so that they could take the money and buy the surrounding land because (say it with me) the railroad is coming through soon and the land will be worth a lot more very shortly. The leader of these men, Stengel (Franco Ressel) believes that he is superior to those around him and keeps an odd assortment of suits of armor, two odd black painted wood cutouts of silhouetted men in a gun duel that are used in a deadly showdown game, and a half cane with a trigger that shoots what appears to be a poison tipped dart, in his place of business/home (it isn't quite clear but I don't know if poison shooting canes are more of a home decor thing or business appropriate).
Realizing that as Sabata has returned the safe, their plans could be found out, Stengel orders his men to kill anyone that was associated with the robbery. Sabata figures it out and keeps some very incriminating evidence for himself and tells Stengel and his business partners that he will take $20,000 and then give up the evidence. Stengel, thinking he can just get Sabata killed for cheaper, hires a lot of different people to kill Sabata with very little success. Each time they fail, Sabata's price goes up.
Meanwhile, there is another mysterious stranger in town that plays a banjo and seems to have a past with Sabata. His name is... Banjo (William Berger, but for some reason I kept seeing Roger Moore). He seems to help Sabata and is one step ahead everything, but is just biding his time until he can find the opportunity he is looking for.
Oh, and there is a Native American who doesn't speak but perches on rooftops, watching, and helps out Carrincha and Sabata. He can make amazing leaps and flips and is good on a horse. He has no name but Carrincha calls him Alley Cat.
Did I mention Carrincha is also deadly accurate with throwing knives? And that Sabata has a small revolver that has separate gun barrels in its handle? And that Sabata carries a bag with him at all times that he can rig so that his hand gun fires from inside it? Oh, and that Banjo's banjo is also a gun? If any of that makes you smile, then Sabata is probably a great film for you.
After Day of Anger, I was happy to see Lee Van Cleef again. His Sabata is probably the closest I will get to see him as a good guy, but even here he is good only by virtue that he is working on the side of the law to blackmail the other bad guys, so good is probably not the right word. He is a better guy.
His gunfighting skills here are super human, that's the only way to put it. He never misses and he comes up with Macgyver level traps to distract the bad guys. There is one sight gag of him posing like a picture in a frame that is so over the top, you have to respect that the film makers went there. No matter how much disbelief you have to suspend (and it would be all the disbelief in the world), Van Cleef makes Sabata so damn cool.
Speaking of disbelief, Alley Cat's agility is laugh out loud amazing. The film wants you to believe he can jump down and then leap up to his next target, but in reality you can tell they put mini trampolines behind the objects he was leaping onto so that he can spring upward to the next thing. It works but it is so silly. I do appreciate that even though he is mute, he gets across some friendly warmth toward Sabata and Carrincha.
Banjo as a character is equal parts badass and frustratingly unbelievable. William Berger always plays the character with a smile at the corner of his lips and you get the feeling that he plays the banjo as more of way to annoy people than really to entertain. His outfit is tasselled with jingly bells that cause him to jingle and jangle with each step. And I just wanted to give him a haircut so goddam bad.
I need to speak about Franco Ressel's Stengel. His character's feel and look vaguely reminded me of Javier Bardem's Silva from Skyfall. There was an effeminate quality in this character that would have been way more interesting in a more serious western. It still works here and Ressel's arrogant and kind of twisted performance made him a good bad guy. He would have been at more home in Django Kill ...If You Live, Shoot! with the rest of those dark townspeople.
There is a scene between Stengel and Sabata that I wish I could link but I am not able to find it. It sums up the whole film quite well. They are in the room with a large long dining table that has a number of glass liquor bottles on it. Sabata sits down, tells Stengel to sit. As Stengel sits, he places his dart cane on the table, perfectly aimed at Sabata. Sabata, while talking, places a glass bottle in the path of the cane. Stengel, responding, awkwardly and blatantly moves the cane further to the right, with another clear shot at Sabata. Sabata then places another bottle of liquor in the way. It was the world's best worst game of chess I have ever seen. You can appreciate the posturing going on but it was so weird and funny.
Below is a scene that is a showdown between Sabata and Banjo. Banjo is turning on them as he has been offered a lot money to do so. Check out the music that plays during the clip, it is so great.
That bit contains ridiculous dialogue, weird guns, unrealistically accurate gunshots, and sweet organ music. Not much more needs to be said about the tone of Sabata.
Speaking of the music, it is my favorite part of the film. The score was done by Marcello Giombini, and it is just as over the top as the film is. Some serious parts but then it has a great guitar riff that is similar to the title theme to Riz Ortlani's Day of Anger score. I can listen to this one on a loop and makes me wish I had it on vinyl.
When researching The Mercenary, I learned about how comedy started seeping into Spaghetti Westerns and immediately sunk the sub-genre. I can see why that would be and it is a bummer because I feel like there was a brazenness I have seen in Leoni's and Corbucci's films that I feel like could have been explored more before this era closed. Comedy can have its place, but if it stifled the direction these films were heading, then it is a shame. Sabata is ridiculous but it makes me wonder what they could have done if they would learned more into the darkly weird like Django Kill! than the over the top suspension of disbelief breaking action they chose to go with here.
Sabata is a fun film and worth a watch. This is the perfect film to have on in the background during a get together because you can watch Alley Cat do some crazy jumps or see Stengel use his dart cane or see Sabata throw his coins and hit every target he intends and laugh and shake your head at what craziness you just watched. Carrincha would agree with that.
Western Checklist (nowhere near official or scientific):
- Weird gang member names? You have an Alley Cat and a Banjo. Checked and marked.
- Beautiful landscapes? The one thing I will point out is Stengel's murder office. The rich reds and weird architecture belonged more in a horror film than a western and again, I wish his portion was in a more serious film.
- Any terrified horses? Not like the last few films. A covered wagon explodes, so I am sure that bothered some of them. At least it wasn't a horse bomb.
- How many Ernest Borgnines? Outside of Van Cleef, there isn't anyone here that I can recall seeing in another film.
- Does Lee Van Cleef rival Fonzie in his ability to throw coins and make things happen? I mean, I know the Fonz would either snap his fingers or bang the side of a jukebox to make it work, but it's the same principal. They are equals in this regard.
- A better title for this film would have been 'Heads I Win, Tails You Die!'
- Does it have a theme song with the name of the film in the title? Kind of. Listen to the compilation below and you will hear the name Sabata said out loud followed by some laughter. I love this score.
Rating:
I am going to give Sabata 3.5 out of 5 tin stars. It is fun movie and Lee Van Cleef is great as always. The ridiculous ways guns are used and deployed are half the fun. Again, I wish some of this material was played more seriously but that's on me and not this film. The music is amazing. This a fun breezy watch and there are worse ways to spend a hour and forty five minutes.
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