È tornato Sabata... hai chiuso un'altra volta (1971)

Director:

Gianfranco Parolini

Writers:

Renato Izzo (writer)
Gianfranco Parolini (writer)

Release Date:

3 September 1971 (Italy)

Genre:

Western

Tagline:

The man with gunsight eyes is back!

Plot:

Master gunslinger Sabata arrives in Hobsonville, a town completely owned by McIntock, a robber baron...

Plot Keywords:

Money | Sadism | Part Of Trilogy | Blood | Tax

Cast

Lee Van Cleef	...	Sabata / Major
Reiner Schöne	...	Clyde / Lieutenant
Giampiero Albertini	...	Joe McIntock
Ignazio Spalla	...	Bronco (as Pedro Sanchez)
Annabella Incontrera	...	Maggie, Saloon Girl
Jacqueline Alexandre	...	Jackie McIntock
Aldo Canti	...	Angel, acrobat (as Nick Jordan)
Vassili Karis	...	Bionda, acrobat (as Karis Vassili)
Steffen Zacharias	...	Donovan
Pia Giancaro		(as Maria Pia Giancaro)
John Bartha	...	Sheriff (as Janos Bartha)
Günther Stoll	...	Circus Show Man (as Gunther Stoll)
Carmelo Reale
Franco Fantasia
Ileana Rigano		(as Ilenna Rigano)

Also Known As:

Le retour de Sabata (France)
Return of Sabata
Sabata kehrt zurück (West Germany)
The Return of Sabata (Australia)

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

Italy | France | West Germany

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Spain:T | West Germany:16 (nf) | Germany:16 (DVD rating) | Singapore:PG | Finland:K-16 | France:-16 | Italy:VM18 | Norway:16 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 (video rating) (1998) | UK:X (original rating) | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Dino De Laurentiis Cinematografica Studios, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Artemis Film

Trivia:

One of the films included in "The Fifty Worst Films of All Time (and how they got that way)" by Harry Medved and Randy Lowell.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the scene where Sabata and the goons are about to play the "see-saw game" in the saloon, Sabata is seen putting on his gloves, then they pan out to a long shot of the entire saloon and he's gloveless. When they return to the close-up of Sabata, he's wearing the gloves again.

Quotes:

Friend: I give you my word.
Sabata: It's pretty difficult to cash that.

Movie Connections:

Edited into Spaghetti Western Trailer Show (2007) (V)

A bit confusing... but enjoyable

Return of Sabata casts Lee Van Cleef back as the cunning and ruthless sharpshooter, Sabata. Similarities between the first Sabata movie where Van Cleef also played the same role are more than abundant: acrobats, comical sidekicks, greedy villains, double-crossing allies, Sabata shooting off with his cool 4-barreled Derringer and so forth. Lee Van Cleef rocks. He's as cool as ever, and all the other actors do at least fairly decent jobs supporting him.

Everything seems to be as well as in the first movie. Except that this time the plot is more complicated and filled with twists and turns (and plot holes). Unfortunately this is not entirely good thing: in time you lose track of the plot twists and begin to wonder the motives and the logic behind some of the characters behavior. Why did he do that? Wouldn't it been more logical to behave or act some other way? Much like Ocean's 12 or any other snotty "cleverer-than-thou" sequel, Return of Sabata drowns you with twists and turns just for the sake of confusing. This leads to the point that you actually have to watch Return of Sabata at least couple of times before the main plot fully unravels. Of course you do get the big picture in the end of the movie after the first watch, but in order to get all the nuances and small details in place you might want to give it another go. Not that the main plot would magically turn out to be any better: it just rewards you a little bit more since the second time you have a small grasp *why* somebody did something that seemed illogical or strange before. This time you know what's in that characters mind and you also know something about his motives. Then again, I strongly believe that these kind of character traits should have been portrayed clearer in the script (or acting) so you would have realized them during the first view time already.

In short? Return of Sabata offers great characters, but lousy and confusing plot. Still, it's worth a watch. Or two.