Simply A Masterpiece

It is a performances centric movie

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

See it -I bet you didn't know Yul Brynner was in a spaghetti western. Well this is one of my favorite spaghetti westerns, and it's as "spaghetti" as they come. You've got crazy-looking guns, plenty of camera close-ups, and even a cowboy who specializes in kicking musket balls at the enemy. An insanely fun western that will keep you entertained with its plethora of action-packed, over-the-top gunfights and battles. Brynner plays the stereotypical cowboy lead character, but the plot isn't stereotypical at all. The story takes place in Mexico, where a revolution is brewing against the Austrians. You know you want to see a movie featuring cowboys vs. Austrian soldiers! An underrated western that shouldn't be taken seriously, but should seriously be taken…home from the store…when you buy it. 5 out of 5 action rating

Yul Brynner and Dean (The Red Elvis) Reed team up with a group of Mexican revolutionaries in order to steal a shipment of gold belonging to the invading Austrian army and use it to buy guns for the resistance. However, the vicious Austrian occupiers have a few tricks up their sleeves and so does Brynner.Yul's only real spaghetti western, his performance, flamboyant outfit, and neat gun-play elevates this very much typical, though well-made production to a higher level than it otherwise would have been. It's still too bland though.The score by frequent Ennio Morricone collaborator Bruno Nicolai is pretty good.From the producers and director of the earlier Sabata, this similarly themed film only became a sequel in the dubbing booth.

Although originally not intended as a sequel to the Sabato-films, the theme song tries real hard to help us memorizing the protagonist's name. It's a cool song, nevertheless, but the singer repeats the name "Sabato" at least 30 times in only 3 minutes, and there aren't much other lyrics... Anyways, "Adios Sabato" is a pretty awesome spaghetti-western with many great plot lines, entire truckloads of exciting action sequences and an unusually high amount of truly ingenious gimmicks. One western legend replaces the other, as no one less than Yul Brynner takes over the titular role from Lee Van Cleef, who sadly couldn't make it back to Italy in time to reprise his role. The opening scenes show Sabato dueling fellow gunslingers for money, but he soon joins a group of Mexican rebels in their everlasting quest against sadistic Austrian army troops. When Sabato and his outrageously eccentric Mexican friends steal a chest full of gold, they have to gunfight their way back to freedom. There's not a minute going by without director Gianfranco Paroline adding some kind of exhilarating twist or impressively staged action-stunt. Whenever they're not hunting for gold, the heroes as well as the super-mean villains pass their time playing violent shooting games, whether it's recruiting the most courageous new warrior or simply aiming at poor Mexican prisoners for the sake of amusement. Yul Brynner's character is in many ways reminiscent to Chris Adams; the heroic cowboy leader of "The Magnificent Seven". Sabato (or Indio Black, if you insist) is a silent but extremely authoritative figure, and it's actually his Mexican companions who are the more enthusiast fighters. One of them creatively kills his opponents by foot-kicking metal bullet-like projectiles at them and another one, Gitano, always offers his victims a nifty flamenco-dance before wasting them. Colonel Skimmel, the Austrian über-villain has an inventive collection murderous toys as well, most notably a miniature model ship of which the little canons fire off actual bullets whenever an unwelcome intruder opens the wrong drawer. Like I said, "Adios Sabato" is stuffed with remarkably cool gimmicks that all help making the film delightfully comical and almost cartoonish even. As always, Bruno Nicolai provides a wondrous musical score with catchy tunes and whistles. Nicolai was a brilliant Italian composer, on par with Riz Ortolani and actually not too far behind on Ennio Morricone. Imaginative camera-work and splendid editing also contribute in making "Adios Sabato" another absolute winner in the terrific genre of spaghetti-westerns.

This is not the same "Sabata" character as in the Lee Van Cleef movies. This character was actually supposed to be named "Indio Black" but they changed his name for the English version. Why they thought that a western with a big star like Yul Brynner wouldn't be popular enough on it's own, and tried to cash in on the Sabata name is beyond me, but studios and distributors did a lot of stupid things to film titles back then, especially with the international releases, so it's par for the course.Yul Brynner is interesting as the protagonist in this film. Too bad he didn't appear in any other spaghetti westerns. He's no Lee Van Cleef, but he does have a style of his own. His accent makes him sound like Arnold Schwartzeneggar in some parts. Gerard Herter is great as the wicked, Nazi-like Austrian Colonel. I wasn't very impressed with any of the other actors in the movie. Dean Reed was especially awful, and his character, "Ballantyne" was very irritating. I kept hoping he would get killed throughout the whole movie, but that damned Indio Black kept saving him.The music score is OK, but not as good as most of Bruno Nicolai's other work, and there are very long stretches of the film with no music at all where it probably could use some.The movie drags a little from the middle to the end. There's lots of action, but it just doesn't have the pizazz or suspense of the really great spaghetti westerns. It would probably be better if it was shorter. Some movies, like Sergio Leone's westerns for example, are able to go on for 2 or 3 hours and not have a dull moment, but this movie isn't one of them. It could have been 15 or 20 minutes shorter.Overall, the production quality is good, and the story is OK, though it's nothing original. This one is worth watching, but probably for spaghetti western fans only.