Audience Member
George Hilton was decent in the Sartana role. An enjoyable spin-off, and very well shot.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/22/23
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Audience Member
Ä»oti atsvaidzinoÅ¡s spageti vesterns. JÄ?redz!
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/29/23
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Audience Member
Spaghetti Westerns are rapidly growing on me, because they blend gritty double-dealing with flat-out absurdity. Case in point: Sartana.
There are 4 "proper" Sartana films and numerous sequels and spinoffs. This is a sequel, where the immaculately dressed gunslinger and bounty hunter (George Hilton) tracks down a gang of bandits stealing gold shipments from a crooked mining company. Or they would be, if the mining company hadn't hidden away the gold and only shipped junk. Betrayal follows betrayal as various villains fight it out for the gold, and Sartana rides into town looking to make some money, but soon after, a rival gunslinger, the English dandy Sabbath (Charles Southwood as a character with no connection to the famous gunslinger Sabata), arrives also looking to make his fortune.
The plot is clearly ludicrous, but the film is actually a lot of fun. The bulk of the entertainment comes from Sartana outwitting everyone who opposes him through creative ways. Hilton does a nice job and the rest of the cast are also up to the task. The music is also quite good for the film.
Not a particularly polished film, nor does it really bring a lot to the Western genre, the movie still took me by surprise with how enjoyable it was. Sartana's a great character and the movie has a cocky swagger that adds to its charm.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/11/23
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Audience Member
This film was 90% garbage and 10% wasted good ideas. Firstly, the production was horrible. It looked like the budget was $10,000 bucks and very well should have been. Everything looked pretty cheap. The cinematography was invariably horrible and the gunfights were random and nonsensical. Now there were some redeeming factors in the wildly odd gunfights, but mostly they came off as obscurely stupid (gun in bread loaf)...
George Hilton couldn't hold a candle to Garko's Sartana. While Garko came off as calm, cool, sly and invincible. Hilton was just a douche-bag, cocky and pedestrian. His wit was MIA. Now this is mostly the writers fault, but definitely some of the blame is to be awarded to Hilton.
The best part of the film was the fabulously gay Sabbath (played by Charles Southwood). His eccentric outfit was complete with white parasol. Good thing he kicks ass with a rifle. He was very funny and the best part of the whole film.
Overall, it's only for very very hardcore spaghetti western fans. Stay away, you'll never get that hour or so of your life back.
Rated 1.5/5 Stars •
Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars
02/26/23
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Audience Member
George Hilton takes up the ongoing, ever-changing role of the mysterious, Sartana in: I AM SARTANA, TRADE YOUR GUNS FOR A COFFIN.
Hilton was one of the 2 actors who portrayed Sartana in an "official" capacity, (the character being so popular that he appeared in almost a dozen more "Sartana" films that are not recognised as official releases) and he does a great job here.
The SARTANA films are much more complex and creative than most of the other, cheaply made Spagetti Westerns of the 60's and 70's. I AM SARTANA, TRADE YOUR GUNS FOR A COFFIN is no exception. It provides us with a fairly well written tale where our gold-hungry Sartana, confronts a veritable mob of colourful characters all as hungry for gold as he is... (just, as it turns out... nowhere near as smart). A big part of the appeal in a Sartana movie is figuring out how the hell Sartana's going to get to his gun. It's never really within a convenient reach for him and it always looks like his goose is cooked... but he manages. He manages...
Of course, purely on a technical level.... I AM SARTANA, TRADE YOUR GUNS FOR A COFFIN suffers from the ravages of time. Shot cheaply to begin with, I AM SARTANA, TRADE YOUR GUNS FOR A COFFIN has a horrible transfer and atrocious grading which makes it a difficult view for MOST people who might tune in.
The picture is occasionally out of focus and the dubbing, at times, is very, very poorly synched... but my complaints in regards to the film are largely limited to the technical. The camerawork is clever... (alot of these films were shot with one camera and very minimal equipment so the director has to really strive to make the shot interestingand effectively stage his action sequences). The scene in which Sartana confronts Spencer, the town Banker, by using Spencer's own henchman to disarm him.... is a great example of this. Director Giuliano Carnimeo knows his technical limitations and does an excellent job with what he's got on hand. The scene is smooth and seamless and a great deal of fun to watch.
The performances are memorable and the dialogue is often quite clever (as is the norm for most Sartana movies). Here's a sample of dialogue between Sartana and a mysterious stranger named Sabbath... over a card game:
SARTANA:
"It's a mighty small world, Sabbath... It's becoming too small for us..."
SABBATH:
"A six foot hole would make it big enough..."
SARTANA:
"Don't know about that... Wouldn't you be a bit cramped"?
The action is clever...
The dialogue is fun...
The characters (while simple archetypes of the western) are interesting...
The double, triple and quadruple-crosses just keep on coming...
... and Sartana is just the right kind of crazy to bring a knife to a gunfight.
Crazy, like a fox!
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/26/23
Full Review
Audience Member
"It's a sandwich gun" - Sartana
Wha..wha..what?! A Sartana film without Gianni Garko? This can't be good. Well have no fear friends as yes Garko opted out of this fifth and final Sartana film (aka Fistful of Lead) into the official Pentalogy but filmmakers replaced him with a competent replacement in the form of actor George Hilton. Hell to be honest George Hilton is a much more popular actor in Italy than his predecessor but will he be able to pull off the role that inspired more official sequels than any other spaghetti western character? Well let's put on our shit kickers and see.
Sartana gets wind of a corrupt town official who is robbing stagecoaches transporting gold. He, with the help of his cunning wits and fast drawing hands solves the mystery while along the way trying to figure out how to beat his all time rival Sabbath.
Of course the first thing people are going to want to know is how Hilton does in the role. It is baffling why Garko passed on this film and with Hilton in the role it confuses a lot of people into thinking this is one of those many unofficial "sequels" that cashed-in on the name Sartana. Never-the-less Hilton does fine in the role staying true to the character while bringing his own little twists to the role, mostly more tongue-in-cheek humorous touches.
Giuliano Carnimeo, director of the previous three Sartana films, returns to direct this fifth entry and even with his experience of the franchise at the helm, this sequel lacks a lot of the flair seen in the previous entries. I doubt it was a stylistic choice and seems to be more of a budgetary one as this film just looks smaller scale and cheaper.
The writers also decide to make take a slightly more humorous approach with the subject matter (proved by my opening quote from the film) perhaps to tailor more to the new actor in the lead role. To me the more silly approach hindered the film as I just found it more puerile. The added humor isn't horrible, but it did make me hit my head a few times (again... read the opening quote).
Considering the change in the lead role this sequel doesn't come out bad at all but I can honestly say it is easily the weakest of the franchise. The lowered budget hinders the polished nature of the film and the added humor hindered some of my respect for the character. Considering all this it is still entertaining and Hilton proved he could easily handle taking over a popular role but sadly he wouldn't have an opportunity to tailor it more to his own as there would be no further official adventures of Sartana. Was it due to Spaghetti Western popularity starting to decline or did audience not react well to seeing a new actor in the role? It could be a number of combination of these things including that every other Italian western made at the time cashed in on the Sartana name (copyright laws are more lacked in Italy) confusing audiences on which films were truly part of the official series. Whatever reason Sartana didn't return, officially that is, making this the final chapter and in solid franchise. It sure was fun while it lasted.
Sartana will return.... in a shit load of cash-in unofficial "sequels". Reviews on those to come...
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/17/23
Full Review
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