ADIOS, SABATA (1971)
DIRECTOR:
Gianfranco Parolini
CAST:
Yul Brynner, Dean Reed, Gerard Herter, Iganzio Spalla, Sal Borgese, Joseph P. Persaud, Federico Boido, Gianni Rizzo, Antonio Gradoli, Massimo Carocci, Bruno Corazzarri, Giuseppe Castellano, Salvatore Billa, Giovanni Cianfriglia and Franco Fantasia.
REVIEW:
Gianfranco Parolini brings us another, uniquely-styled spaghetti western. As with most of western Parolini's efforts, it's a zany, fantasy-like look at the Wild West. It's typical Parolini fun, with lots of effort on action and editing and almost none put on realism.
Yul Brynner is Sabata, a gunfighter clad in black, who enlists Mexican revolutionaries in stealing valuable gold from the corrupt Austrian army during the 1873 revolution.
All right. I'll give Parolini credit for one thing: he managed to round up some decent actors for this disastrous movie. Brynner is playing a part far below his talent, and he obviously dubbed in his own voice post-production. It's a terrible post-production job, as are most of the other dubbed actors. Dean Reed is along for the show as Ballantine, Sabata's greedy old buddy, who "helps" liberate the gold only to steal it for himself. The huge Iganzio Spalla is having plenty of fun as a dim-witted revolutionary leader who gets to blast away the bad guys. A bearded Gerard Herter (The Last 4 Days) fills out the leads as Colonel Skimmel, an Austrian villain who allows prisoners to escape only so he can shoot them in the back for target practice.
The numerous action scenes are full of explosions, loud gunfire, zany photography, lots of quick editing and plenty of people throwing their arms up in the air and dying. There are Austrian soldiers, Mexican revolutionaries and black-clad assassins getting killed galore. What's unfortunate is that these action scenes have absolutely no logic and often made very little sense, not just logic-wise, but continuity-wise as well. The ending battle, a la Five for Hell is fantastic, as a few heroes bust into an Austrian fortress and proceed to kill hundreds of bad guys despite obviously unbeatable odds. There's a point where Parolini just forgets he has a limit and goes too far, totally ruining what little credibility he had. The same can be said for the story: Sabata continues to trust Ballantine after getting double-crossed several times; and the whole episode with the revolutionaries on the canyon bridge - what was going on? There is a lot happening that Parolini doesn't explain, he just kind of leaves it up to the viewer to figure out.
On the plus side, Adios Sabata does feature a great Bruno Nicolai score which you'll be humming for days. It's as good as any of his previous work and a close second to any Morricone work. The film was shot throughout Spain, and looks great. Parolini does have some great landscapes and desert vistas to show off, and fills the background with some pretty impressive scenery.
All in all, an entertaining and exciting but still really corny spaghetti western. Still, I can't call it a bad movie: Parolini's trademark is to mix reality with fantasy, and he does a great job here. The story doesn't matter; the continuity doesn't matter, as long as the good guys always win despite how many obstacles get in the way.
SGT. SLAUGHTER'S RATING:
3 Bullets
ON DVD HERE
