Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Manthast Absolutely amazing

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Bea Swanson This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Bezenby For feck's sake! Those sleazy business owners are at it again! Just like Fistful of Lead and I Am Sartana, Pray for Your Death, these guys are setting up the local bank to be ripped off for their own gain. It's a pity that Sabata tracked down the bad guys who nicked the loot, shot everyone involved, then brought the stolen safe back to town. Now he's blackmailing the bankers for a cool thirty grand!And like some Italian genre film hell that keeps repeating itself over and over again, the bankers are played by the same guys who usually play the bankers, the sheriff is played by the same guy who usually plays the sheriff in these films, Romano Puppo is obviously one of the bad guys and Van Cleef's gadget carrying Sabata character looks suspiciously like Gianni Garko's gadget carrying Sartana character, whom is based on Lee Van Cleef's Colonel Mortimer from For A Few Dollars More.What makes this film cooler than the eight or nine hundred other Westerns with the same plot and cast produced by Italy that year is that it's got William Berger as a banjo playing bell covered hippy, a mute acrobat called Alleycat, a gun that fires from both ends and an explosion filled finale to rival all the explosion filled finales of eighties films such as Die Hard and Commando! Can I further sell by telling you that Berger's banjo contains a rifle?It also sidesteps the good guys figuring out who the bad guys are and goes straight for the businessmen trying to destroy Sabata by using bounty hunters, one of whom tells Sabata that he's going to kill him the moment he stops laughing (spoiler: Sabata shoots him), and another turns up as fake priest with a pretty poor ruse for taking Sabata out.It's all nonsense, but it's fun nonsense, and the theme tune sounds like Ween's Vallejo. To quote a Youtube comment: "That creepy homo with the comb over is the best bad guy ever."

TankGuy Sabata is a gem as it is unique among other spaghetti westerns. Lee Van Cleef gives probably his best performance and the film is high on action.The action never stops as the film begins with a bank robbery, then about twenty minutes later shows sabata killing all the robbers and returning the money. A few scenes later banjo shoots dead several unknown goons who are out to kill him. Other action includes excellently choreographed fist fights and brawls, small shooting and a large shootout at a ranch. The killcount is very high.As with most spaghettis, sabata is extremely cheesy and includes several funny, comedic and weird moments. The theme tune is excellent as well.A must see for western and action movie fans.

lastliberal There is nothing like a good spaghetti western to pass a Sunday afternoon, especially when Tiger has little chance of winning.This one is particularly good, as it stars the great Lee Van Cleef as a bounty hunter who foils an attempt to rob $100,000 from the army.Filled with lots of interesting characters like Banjo (William Berger), Carrincha (Ignazio Spalla), and Indio (Aldo Canti); more than a few laughs; and some amazing tricks and gun play by Van Cleef; it is just the thing for fans of the genre.I have to note that it is a good thing that the bad guys led by Stengel (Franco Ressel) have unlimited resources, because they drop like flies at every attempt to kill Sabata.

Poe-17 Not that they will alter your enjoyment of this film but ...POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD!!! There were three of them up for grabs back then; Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson and Lee Van Cleef. Of course, Clint won the star and then history went its way. Charles went on to reign in the beautiful "Once Upon a Time in the West" alongside of Henry Fonda who did the best "against type" in cinema history. Lee Van Cleef followed Clint through "For a Few Dollars More" and the great but not-as-good-as-"Once Upon a Time In The West" classic "The Good The Bad and the Ugly".Clint had the squint but Lee Van Cleef was the actor all spaghetti westerns wanted. His eyes, the physical features of his face, his poise and delivery of lines (when the lines weren't way way dumb - he had a director, remember).Way up over the top bounty hunter, good-guy/bad-guy, supernatural marksmanship, mysterious even when the mystery isn't resolved ... he played the same character in many films, even a "shouldn't have been done" Magnificent Seven" outing."Sabata" gave him his role, three years after Clint's squint.With "Sabata", Lee found his role that Clint Eastwood found with his "Man with no name". "Sabata" was more tongue in cheek and visually energetic but it played exactly into the era. The "Sabata" series missed their chance the same way all those Country and Western singers missed their opportunity when Garth Brooks took things over.The second "Sabata" starred Yul Bryner as "Indio Black" ??!! and Lee stepped in for other sequels but the momentum was gone A lost possibility for cinema. It died on the vine.But "Sabata" remains with all its potential and presentation as a viable series of films whose history just wasn't to be.From the theme (catchy), to Banjo's music (so fitting) to Sabata's accuracy when tossing coins (which resolves a critical point in the movie) this film stepped outside the traditional western ( as overseas films about the American West were doing those days - check out the saguaro cactus in filmed-in-Spain films ... planted plastic).A mis-timed mythology that should have made its mark."Sabata" is the origin that wanted and could have become a set of movies to be cherished by western cinema lovers.it didn't. Our loss.But this seminal film is around for us to revisit and remember.On a personal note there is a couple of lines of dialog that have perplexed me from my first viewing - which came from out of the blue. They are at the end of the film. A companion of Sabata asks "Who the hell are you?" and Sabata says; "Didn't I ever mention it?" End of movie.I would love to know if that was just an enigmatic piece of dialog inserted into things, or if that statement addressed a specific intent of the movie.I don't know how to resolve that question.Any insight would be appreciated.