It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

One of the best from the late-great Lee Van Cleef, "Sabata" is a clever, stylishly staged and somewhat unusual entry for the genre, which holds up well to repeated viewings. In familiar territory as a bounty hunter, only not for Sergio Leone this time, but fellow paisano and film auteur Gianfranco Parolini, a fine talent in his own right, who, as evidenced in this film, had some original ideas of his own. This is first and probably the best of the three Sabata films, a series known for it's gripping gun-fights, high-flying acrobats and an overall high-degree of cinematic flair; and to top things off, thanks to the stellar performances of Lee Van Cleef and Yul Brynner, these films are firmly guided by the ultra-cool, swaggering presence of some of the genre's all-time best talent. In the case of the first film Lee Van Cleef's trademark steely stare and unshakable presence impregnates virtually every minute of this classic spaghetti-western, in which you'll see old Lee gun-down dozens of villainous scoundrels, with his six-guns blasting, while his screen presence works in over-time! And once the movie has roared to a close, I can't - off the top of my head - think of any other performance of his, in ANY movie, were his swagger comes through more potently then in Sabata. Lee Van Cleef's ultra-cool-grizzled-old-gun-fighter persona simply instills this film with a distinctive and pervasive quality, which of course, in this case, is the cumulative effect of his uniquely potent screen presence, that only a handful of stars can compete with. Because as most fans of his work know, Van Cleef could play both sides of the coin with a natural ease, as he was always equally adept at playing the villain. In Sabata he's teamed up with some unique characters that do a terrific job of furthering the story, while adding much to the overall variety and character of the movie as a whole. And just how many westerns do you see that prominently feature acrobats? Only in Sabata. The lead villain is of particular mention, as he's very distinctive and after a great scene in which they go mano-a-mano, that erupts into an exchange of witticisms and gun-fire, in the villains trophy room. Ultimately old Lee finishes him of literally, with the mere flick of his thumb, because after all when you've got swagger to spare and have a silver dollar in your hand, you can do things like that. From start to finish Sabata delivers the goods (most especially it's fiery finale) and should leave no one disappointed. Because along with all the great gun-fights, Lee and his gang have so many tricks up their sleeves, as a result the movie is chocked full of fun twists, flashes of sly humor and highly-stylized visual flair. Which in light of the films distinctive sense of originality and numerous off-kilter directorial choices, naturally, this creates many colorful and unusual developments within the movie, more so then most films of the genre. Musically speaking Sabata is also quite distinctive, from it's catchy main theme, to it's unusual inclusion of a pipe organ, to the way the banjo is cleverly implemented (culminating in gunfire), Sabata indeed packs in many musical highlights. While the insanely gorgeous Linda Veras provides the movies eye-candy.What this all equals up to is the cumulative effect of a star who was very much in his prime and a director who was like-wise in his element, when their inspired collaboration, that being Sabata of course, came to be. Also it's two sequels are very much in the same vein and definitely well worth checking out. The series goes in this order Sabata 69' / Adios Sabata 70' (with Yul Brenner in the role) / Return of Sabata 71'.Ultimately the Sabata series is an extremely enjoyable romp, through high-spirited realms of spaghetti-western escapism, which should easily when you over with it's innovative approach and great acting.

The original "Sabata" is just good, solid Spaghetti Western escapism directed with flair by Gianfranco Parolini. It benefits from an interesting bunch of characters, "good" guys and bad guys alike, characters who are all zestfully played by a well chosen cast. The music by Marcello Giombini is good enough to rival the work of Ennio Morricone, with eclectic use of banjos and organs. The picture is extremely well shot in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio by Sandro Mancori, with great use of Spanish and Italian locations. Of course, what really makes it irresistible is the presence of Lee Van Cleef, who's deliciously devious as the title character. He was truly a natural for this type of film.Sabata is a mysterious gunslinger who comes to the small town of Daugherty City. One night, an ingenious plot to remove an Army safe from the town bank is pulled off. What Sabata learns is that it's the arrogant fat cats in town who masterminded the theft so that they could purchase land on which a railroad will be built. What follows is that Sabata makes a number of attempts to blackmail these pompous jerks, constantly increasing his price, while they keep trying to keep him quiet. Fortunately, Sabata has made alliances with characters such as Carrincha (Ignazio Spalla) and the mute, acrobatic "Alley Cat" (Bruno Ukmar).Van Cleef is fun, but so too is the charismatic William Berger as the musician "Banjo". He's just as hard to read as Sabata; you're always wondering what his deal is. Certainly the viewer realizes that this plot will come complete with double crosses and twists, and that makes it quite amusing, as well as the fact that Sabata never runs out of tricks that he can play on the enemy. In addition to the plethora of gunplay and the high body count, it's the craftiness of Sabata and Banjo that is the most entertaining element of the film. The supporting cast is solid: Franco Ressel as creepy villain Stengel, Antonio Gradoli as his associate Ferguson, very lovely Linda Veras as female lead Jane, Claudio Undari as Stengels' goon Oswald, Gianni Rizzo as Judge O'Hara, and ubiquitous Luciano Pigozzi as "Father Brown".The finale is quite enjoyable, with a nice bunch of twists and a good laugh at the end.Fans of this genre will likely dig this one.Eight out of 10.

I watched this for the first time last night and really enjoyed it its the best western I've seen for a while I'm surprised it hasn,t got more of a following.it stars lee van cleef as sabata a gunslinger with a unique arsenal (how cool is that derringer) who rights wrongs done by criminal elements. along the way he meets up with a few unique characters a acrobatic mute Indian ally cat, a local bandit carrincha and an enigmatic banjo player who sabata has met before. Even the bad guys aren,t your typical western criminals. i was surprised how action packed it was. and how different some of the action was to usual gun play in westerns. this is easily lee van cleefs best work since the dollar films.A must for any lee van cleef fan

I would watch practically any "Spaghetti Western" with Lee Van Cleef because even though the writing was not always great in all the films (such as his two Sabata films), his menacing screen presence was amazing--making him one of the most frightening characters in Westerns. While I definitely preferred him in his films he did with Clint Eastwood (FISTFUL OF DOLLARS, FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE and THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY), there is enough eye-popping Van Cleef action to make his fans satisfied. Here, he looked and acted much like the characters in these great films with his piercing eyes, black outfit and amazing skills that were super-human.Unfortunately, at the same time, there were a few major impediments in this film. First, the weird and distracting characters such as 'Banjo' and 'the Alley Cat' did not help improve the movie but detracted from Van Cleef's menacing persona. It's hard to keep focused on the demon-like Van Cleef when these other two are chewing every scene they are in and their on-screen antics are just plain weird. Second, the plot is very convoluted and more complicated than was necessary. Much of this was because of all the weirdos, but much of it was just poor writing relative to the great Italian Westerns made both immediately before and after SABATA. Finally, while it wasn't always bad, the musical score was certainly not up to the standards of an Ennio Morricone score (he did the music for the more famous Italian Westerns). Instead, it ranged from really awful (the opening song in particular) to reminiscent of Morricone--but never his equal.So what you have left is a slightly better than mediocre film thanks only to the screen presence of Lee Van Cleef. Otherwise, try some other Italian Western--almost all of them are better.