One of the best spaghetti westerns I’ve first-watched in a long time. I recently loved Gianfranco Parolini’s Sabata and I never thought this would reach the heights that did but this gave me almost everything I could want from one of these movies. I will say for an early knock on this one, pretty much every spaghetti western I’ve seen so far had an iconic score but this one didn’t do much for me so that was a bit disappointing. Aside from that though everything here completely embodied the spaghetti western genre and I had such a great time. Gianni Garko’s portrayal of Sartana is up there with The Man with No Name, I’d even say he was better than Franco Nero’s Django, from his first scene I felt a surprisingly different vibe from other spaghetti western protagonists and it really worked for me. William Berger gives another great villain performance, I think I still like him more in Sabata but he impressed me here yet again. Seeing Klaus Kinski for a few scenes was cool too, not a face I was at all expecting but his few minutes of screen-time were impactful enough to leave me satisfied. That final standoff between Sartana and Lansky will be an all time iconic western moment in my mind, there were so many great scenes here but it’s hard for that one not to stand out. This was an Ennio Morricone or a Luis Bacalov away from being a masterpiece, but as it is, it’s still one of the best westerns I’ve seen so far.
One of the best spaghetti westerns I’ve first-watched in a long time. I recently loved Gianfranco Parolini’s Sabata and I never thought this would reach the heights that did but this gave me almost everything I could want from one of these movies. I will say for an early knock on this one, pretty much every spaghetti western I’ve seen so far had an iconic score but this one didn’t do much for me so that was a bit disappointing. Aside from that though everything here completely embodied the spaghetti western genre and I had such a great time. Gianni Garko’s portrayal of Sartana is up there with The Man with No Name, I’d even say he was better than Franco Nero’s Django, from his first scene I felt a surprisingly different vibe from other spaghetti western protagonists and it really worked for me. William Berger gives another great villain performance, I think I still like him more in Sabata but he impressed me here yet again. Seeing Klaus Kinski for a few scenes was cool too, not a face I was at all expecting but his few minutes of screen-time were impactful enough to leave me satisfied. That final standoff between Sartana and Lansky will be an all time iconic western moment in my mind, there were so many great scenes here but it’s hard for that one not to stand out. This was an Ennio Morricone or a Luis Bacalov away from being a masterpiece, but as it is, it’s still one of the best westerns I’ve seen so far.
