Mannaja, l'homme à la hache

One of the later Spaghetti Westerns, and often compared to Enzo G. Castellari's "Keoma" from 1976, Sergio Martino's "Mannaja" aka. "A Man Called Blade" is a very stylish, and pretty brutal movie with some minor flaws. The comparisons to Keoma are quite plausible indeed, Mannaja was made only one year after Keoma, both soundtracks were composed by Maurizio and Guido De Angelis, and the leading actor Maurizio Merli actually looks a lot like the great Franco Nero, who played the title role in Keoma. It is often stated that Maurizio Merli only got bigger roles due to his resemblance to Franco Nero. Anyway, Merli's performance as Mannaja is great. Comparing Mannaja to Keoma, Mannaja had a smaller budget, but it makes up for this with graphic violence and genuine nastiness. The performances in Mannaja are great, even though it's pretty hard to come up to Franco Nero, Woody Strode and William Berger. The music composed by the De Angelis Brothers, which some folks seem to have disliked in "Keoma" (I'm not one of them), actually fits into Mannaja very well.

Mannaja, an occasional bounty hunter and gunslinger who is fast with both his gun and his tomahawk, comes to a small town to collect the reward for a bandit he has caught. The town, which doesn't have a Sheriff, is ruled by an aging rich landowner named Mc Gowan, who treats the laborers at his silver mine like animals. Mc Gowan's right hand man, a ruthless killer named Voller, however, even makes his boss look like a nice guy in his sadism and unscrupulousness.

Mannaja has, apart from its resemblances to Keoma, many resemblances to earlier Spaghetti Westerns. Mannaja's back-flashes, for example, remind of movies like Sergio Corbucci's "The Great Silence", or Sergio Leone's "Once Upon A Time In The West". Since these resemblances are only occasional, however, they don't make the movie worse. The performances are good, I especially liked John Steiner as the villainous Voller and Maurizio Merli as Mannaja. The character of Mannaja (according to the movie 'Mannaja' means 'blade' in a Native American language) is generally very cool, the fact that he kills with his tomahawk as frequently as with his gun (if not more frequently), makes the whole movie very stylish. All things considered, Maurizio Merli, who is best known for his roles in ultraviolent Italian crime flicks, is probably not as versatile an actor as Franco Nero, but he definitely made a great Mannaja. A nasty, ultra-violent and gripping Spaghetti Western, "Mannaja" is a must see for genre-fans!

I found this film to be quite inspirational, actually. The movie is about a man who wields a blade for a weapon in fending off the bad guys while rescuing the girl from the evil villain, Voller (brilliantly played by John Steiner). At the beginning of the film we find our rogue hero Blade (played by Maurizio Merli) chasing after a man through the misty swamps. The man looks behind him frantically several times to try to make out the figure of his pursuer. Suddenly there is a swishing noise in the air as a hatchet blade strikes the man, severing his right hand against a tree. Thus begins the tale, and follows our hero into a virtual ghost town, where "sin and vice are not permitted." He enters a saloon where he and his new companion (the man with the severed hand) receive several shifty-eyed glances. This is when Blade first meets the dastardly Voller and wagers a gamble playing cards, to which of course our hero wins. The filming technique used throughout this scene is truly classic, where some shots show a profile of the villain on one side of the screen, with Blade standing in the background. The character acting is superb. I cannot speak enough about how Steiner personifies the classic old west villain to a "T". His snide mannerisms and long, lean stature lend to his overall character appeal. Throughout this film, there is plenty of splendid gunfighting and even a particularly notable scene in which Blade dukes it out with Voller and three of his henchmen in the mud. Yes, the actor actually does 90% of these stunts (as I later found out watching the director interview on DVD)! The director, Sergio Martino, could not have directed a more well-scripted film, complete with all the elements of a traditional spaghetti western! I give this film 3 out of 4 stars, mainly for its overall character appeal and for the simple fact that it's a 70's flick! 'Nuff said...

This film begins with a bounty hunter who goes by the name "Blade" (Maurizio Merli) riding into the small mining town of Suttonville with a criminal named "Burt Craven" (Donald O'Brien) as his prisoner. Unfortunately, when he gets there he is informed that there is no real sheriff there which makes it impossible for him to claim the bounty. To make things even worse, he is also told that the entire town is essentially owned by the wealthy owner of the local silver mine named "Edward McGowan" (Philippe Leroy) and that nothing gets done without his approval or that of his chief enforcer and bodyguard by the name of "Voller" (John Steiner) . To that end, when Blade volunteers to help Edward McGowan with a problem he is experiencing with some local bandits, Voller doesn't take it too well and this results in a serious rift between Blade and everyone else-and Voller is not a man to take things lightly. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was an entertaining "Spaghetti Western" which managed to keep my attention pretty much from start-to-finish. Admittedly, I didn't especially care for a couple of the twists and turns taken and the musical score was a bit odd. But even so I liked this film for the most part and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

In the early 70s, Spaghetti Westerns were going through a dry spell. Countless crappy parody films had flooded the market and strangled the life out of the genre. Then Italian crime maestro and occasional Spaghetti director Enzo G. Castellari came along and directed the psychedelic, action-packed masterpiece "Keoma". Gone was the cynicism and nihilism that seperated early Spaghettis from American Westerns. Instead there was an injection of emotion. The silent hero of the past was now a heartfelt warrior who wasn't above crying in between bouts of ass-kicking. Needless to say, it revived the genre briefly and led to a few knock-offs. "Mannaja" is probably the most obvious with it's similar visual style and music score, but Sergio Martino's keen visual sense (though not as good as Castellari's) and Maurizio Merli's excellent performance allow the film to stand on it's own two legs. There's a lot of well-staged slow motion shootouts and a fistfight in the mud here and there, along with an interesting if not compelling plotline. All in all, this is a great knock-off that has just enough originality to be a good stand-alone piece. Recommended.

I absolutely love this film.

The lead actor, Maurizio Merli, is a handsome man and a decent actor cast in the role of the "Good" Bounty Hunter, with Donald O'Brien as the "Ugly" thief/wanted man, and John Steiner as the "Bad" villain. The acting is top-notch as far as Italian Westerns go. The cinematography is beautiful, the editing great, and the direction superb. The sets are great but shrouded in a mysterious fog that lends to the movies surrealism. This film is like a very Artistic Western Graphic-Novel!

There are a few things in the plot that make you scratch your head (what movie DOESN'T suffer this problem?) but overall I would rank this in my Top Ten Westerns so far...here is the list (only culled from films I have seen thus far)

1. The Good The Bad The Ugly 2. Django 3. Mannaja 4. Fistful of Dollars 5. For a Few Dollars More 6. Tombstone 7. Outlaw Josey Wales 8. Unforgiven 9. Pale Rider 10.Silverado 11.High Plains Drifter 12.Hang Em High 13.Once Upon A Time in the West 14.Fistful of Dynamite 15.The Quick and The Dead

If you are a fan of movies that are as much art as film, then you should love Italian cinema!