Sartana - Bete um deinen Tod

Sartana (played superbly by John Garko) has one of the greatest entrances on screen of all the Spaghetti protagonists. When accused of looking like a scarecrow, he utters the classic line "I am your pallbearer" before gunning down all the bandits facing him. A classic moment, with the black clad Sartana setting the scene perfectly for this Gothic tinged western.

The story itself is a very complicated affair, and one which I'm not completely sure I followed from beginning to end (I blame the wine consumption). In simple terms, the story evolves around a stagecoach robbery and murder (with the culprits themselves hijacked and massacred by Lasky - played by the ever brilliant William Berger - and his gang). Enter Sartana, in the midst of further double crossing and more double crossing. And cue bloodshed aplenty!

Sartana combines the gadgetry of Parolini's later Sabata movies, with the darkness and brutality of Django. There are classic performances from Garko and Berger together with the familiar faces of Fernando Sancho and Klaus Kinski.

The success of Sartana is clearly demonstrated by the string of sequels (and name-checks) that followed. And rightly so, the character is in equal parts cool, mysterious and deadly. Much like the film. I just wish I understood it better (time to put away the bottle, and rewind the video perhaps).

I am a big fan of Spaghetti Westerns (the good ones, anyway), and was really looking forward to seeing "Sartana." I loved the film "Django"--I can understand why it was so successful and inspired so many imitation Django-films. But after viewing the English language video of "Sartana", I can't see any reason why "Sartana" inspired any imitators, or was so successful. To me, "Sartana" was just an average Spaghetti, with a high body count--mostly resulting from the villains killing each other. I watched the video twice, and I still don't understand the plot--it was a jumbled mess; perhaps the original Italian version made more sense. Klaus Kinski's role was limited to just a few scenes, with almost nothing to do. William Berger made a charismatic villain, but his personality inexplicably alternated between bravery and cowardice. (And I don't know how Berger was able to recruit gang members, the way he was always killing his own men.) The unshaven anti-hero Garko (who bore an uncanny resemblance to James Franciscus in some scenes) was pleasing but unexceptional in the lead role, his only unique feature was his weapon, a tiny four-barrel pepperbox-style pistol--which in reality, with its short barrels and tiny bullets, should have been vastly inferior in range, accuracy and effectiveness when compared to an ordinary six-shooter. Even the background music was bland. Too many incidents were lifted from the Leone/Eastwood films: the musical watch, the metal plate deflecting a bullet, the eccentric coffin maker. And Sartana wins the final showdown by using a trick, instead of his skill. "Sartana" is a historically important Spaghetti Western because of its success and the number of imitators (in name, at least) that it inspired, but there are many better films within the Spaghetti Western genre.

Forget the plot that was usual, this unique genre spaghetti western certainly are their colorful characters, Sartana (Gianni Garko) portraits a soft spoken hero, overtly akin as Clint Eastwood, but highly stylized, handling a sort of cylinder tagged with cards symbols, spinning around, playing poker, winning of course, those enemies as the Mexican General Tampico, who wants for any means who everybody shall call him as real name "DonJosé Manuel Francisco Mendoza Montezuma de La Plata Perez Rodriguez, very usual on realty spanish members, what a name, what character eating the chicken with dirty hands on a few bites only, also the blue eyes Lasky (William Berger) as often a crook and a special guest Klaus Kinski as the skillful dagger man, beauty girls, without forget the funniest older undertaker, the screenwriter and friendly director Gianfranco Parolini states at bonus material that never received a penny for this picture, which he had 30% of the profits, the producer did swear that lost all his money and couldn't pay his share!!!

Resume:

First watch: 2020 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.25

Now this is more like it! Corpses everywhere, strange enemies, even stranger heroes - this is a good Italian Western, right here. Take that, Dead for a Dollar! Gianni Garko (of Body Count) is the mysterious Sartana, out to get some gold that's been scammed by local businessmen in conjunction with an amazingly over the top William Berger (Dial: Help, Maya, Spider Labyrinth and Keoma). Berger for me plays the best character in the film, a heartless, hyperactive killer who is not shy in double crossing folks, but can intuitively know when to hook up with Sartana too if the situation demands it.

Yep, it's one of those films. Missing gold, uneasy alliances, double crossings, and many, many shoot outs leading to corpses lying everywhere and a mere two characters left alive at the end. This is the kind of film you're looking for. It's got everything you want. Except boobs.

Some come for the Garko, who plays Sartana in a laid back, but deadly way, and stay for the Berger, who's anything but laid back here.

WHUP!

Oh, and seemingly, Klaus Kinski turned up on set one day, stared into the camera a couple of times, and got paid for it!

WHUP!

Oh, and this film has the loudest 'eating a chicken' foley effects I've heard ever heard ever heard.

WHUP!

Crooked bankers plan an insurance swindle and hire a Mexican gang to steal the bank's gold but they also pay Lasky's gang to kill the Mexicans.