Sabata Review

Sabata, a 1969 Spaghetti Western movie starring the one and only Lee Van Cleef, although if you listen to that pesky trouble maker Steve Barnett you may be able find a look-a-like trailing around Flower Shows.

Sabata is almost super-human, unkillable, unstoppable, making for a great villain, although he isn’t! Despite his questionable morals he is still sticking it to the man, taking down anybody who gets in the way of his life, including priests, gambling degenerates and rich land barons. Sabata foils the plot of the higher coats of town in which they attempted to steal $100,000 from the bank to buy land and then sell to the rail companies. Instead Sabata kills those who stole the money, returned it and then blackmailed the high coats. However, they would rather do anything than give this wild card £60,000, so here comes the wrath of some of the deadliest mercenaries the Wild West has to offer…and a priest. None of these are good enough, leading to an almighty shoot out at the end, which makes Scarface look like a couple of children running around a play ground with sticks for guns.

The cinematography is beautiful, but not in the league of Leone’s trilogy, but very little is, however there are plenty of beautiful shots and the surroundings are believable – with all of the shooting taking place in Italy and Spain on set. The pace of the movie is quick and does not slack off at any moment in the film, and this does not hinder the film, but improves. The ending had me in a state of ‘I don’t know’ and left me upset, but then I was happy again when everybody got their just deserves and my previous thoughts were dismissed as nonsense and reactionary as Sabata is unstoppable.

One of the most enjoyable movies I have seen in a long time and I think it enters my top 30 favourite film, and this isn’t even one of the highest held Spaghetti Westerns.