Sartana

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.

Frank Kramer's SARTANA (1968) has emerged as one of the most interesting examples of the classic era Spaghetti Westerns and yet exists as a sort of exuberant failure, reveling in it's sense of artiness & bad taste at the same time. Yet it's an important failure, a movie that spawned a recurring character and helped to shape the Spaghetti Western into a genuinely "adult" form of cinematic entertainment. The film was classified with an "X" certificate in much of Europe when first released and only made it's way to English speaking audiences in a somewhat diminished cut -- and has now been released by indie Spaghetti Western label Wild East Productions on DVD in it's complete form, and demands some re-evaluation. When I first encountered this movie I was admittedly caught up in a wave of excitement about the film's look & style. Here is a pretty much pure example of the Spaghetti Western, made entirely in Italy by an all European cast with no standout Yankee Gringo star turn, unless you count Klaus Kinski's ten minutes or so on screen. Gianni Garko headlines as Sartana in the second of five screen outings by him as a character named "Sartana" but the first from the loosely related series featuring Sartana as a hero: 1966's $1000 ON THE BLACK depicts Sartana as a crazed, barbaric killer and is not related to the Good Guy Sartana movies ... or so the thinking goes.

Sartana's character in this first Good Guy outing is actually more successfully realized than the movie he inhabits, which tells a sort of labyrinthine plot by various bigwigs in a tumbleweed nowhere to intercept a shipment of gold & screw each other over for their percentages, resulting in murder and mayhem: the usual boring stuff. What works is Sartana's character fleshed out by Garko: A black garbed, laconic, mysterious gunfighter who appears out of nowhere with motives all his own and no past history (perhaps the ghost of the original Sartana, sent back to atone for his sins on Earth??). Yet he seems to know what everybody in the movie is up to and has a plan to play the different sides against each other & move in once the dust has settled to pick up the pieces for himself like a Hyena, which is how one character aptly describes him. Sartana is there to preside over the deaths, and make sure everyone gets buried in style.

This is done with a minimum of dialog, an emphasis on mood and a staggering body count for a movie of such limited scope. Which plays out very much like an arty, dark-toned cartoon or graphic novel, with Sartana as a sort of Batman like avenger who takes justice into his own hands. Garko wears his Sartana personal like a tailored suit, even perfecting a way of turning while gazing up from underneath the brim of a hat that reminds me of watching a cobra moving with a snake charmer. He also has more in common with James Bond than Clint Eastwood, armed with a small pepper-box type Derringer pistol that behaves more like a movie prop than an actual weapon, and more often then not scheming his way out of a jam or around his adversary's flanks. He is the epitome of "cool" as a Spaghetti Western anti-hero, and it is easy to see why his performance spawned a series.

The film also boasts a first rate A-list supporting cast of genre veterans: the crazed William Berger, Sydney Chaplin, Spaghetti Western legend Fernando Sancho, Andrea Scotti, Sal Borgese, and of course Klaus Kinski. One of the attributes that gives the film a decidedly surrealist bent is Kinski's "performance", which appears to have been filmed over the course of a long weekend without anyone else present on set but Kinski. Watch him in the barbershop scene: He appears to be dialing it in from another dimension, and in all is on-screen for about ten minutes. What a way to make a living. The later "Sartana" movies directed by Anthony Ascott became increasingly cartoonish but this film has a dark, nasty, almost sadistic side to it that is quite special. I would almost refer to it as "mean spirited", and filmed on a shoestring budget that allowed no quarter for artifice. The offbeat musical score by Piero Piccioni is uniquely un-cinematic with an organ as the central instrument instead of the usual Morricone flavored bravado, and most of the outdoor scenes were filmed near a dump outside of Rome. You can see the green yucky chemicals polluting the pond around which one scene is set, which seems appropriate for a ghoulish, overtly violent cartoon. Or even a horror movie.

8/10 for Spaghetti fans, 5/10 for everybody else, and a classic of the genre any way you slice it.

I'm a big Spaghetti Western fan and fairly tolerant of the stylistic excesses, but this film made little sense. It's not clear what is motivating Sartana, the undertaking laughs insanely, William Berger does not know how to act, etc.

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!