Among hardcore Spaghetti Western aficionados, the Sabata trilogy is recognized as one of the greatest examples of the genre. But unlike other mainstays of the genre, the Sabata trilogy makes no attempt at being bone-chillingly bleak and heart-breaking. In the first film of the trilogy, simply entitled Sabata, we are introduced to killer acrobats, spring-heeled Indians, banjo playing assassins, and none other than Lee Van Cleef as a gunman with almost supernatural marksmanship. After foiling a bank robbery orchestrated by the local town leaders, Cleef gleefully blackmails them. The corrupt leaders, led by a foppish, yet deadly, man of letters who hides a rifle in his walking cane, dispatch assassin after assassin to try and kill Cleef. Yet Cleef remains one step ahead of them all, killing them with ingenious methods such as spring-loading a pistol in a satchel of money. Indeed, Sabata does not even feel like it was directed by the same Italians who ruled the Spaghetti Western. Instead, it seems to mimic Chinese chopsocky films by the Shaw Brothers in its effortless creativity and inventiveness. If Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy embraces the myth and grit of the Old West, then Gianfranco Parolini's Sabata embraces the absurdity and pathos of a society where outlaws could nail targets over 600 yards away with a four-barreled derringer.
8/10
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