PLANET GRIFFIN Review: SARTANA!

'I'll be your pallbearer...'

By now, everybody who remembers the Spaghetti Western genre of the late 60's/early 70's remembers The Man With No Name (Clint Eastwood) and Django (Franco Nero), but in terms of sheer outrageousness, people are only now beginning to recall the name of Gianni Garko and the 2nd most famous character behind Django... SARTANA!

This cat can best be described as a 'James Bond of the West', due to the arsenal that the character carried, as well as Sartana's creator, PAROLINI, was a self-confessed Bond fan---Playing cards that were thrown like shuriken, cigars disguised as dynamite, a 'long range' Winchester (you'll see what I mean), and even a church organ that fires bullets--- the popularity of this character in Europe would lead Parolini to follow Sartana up with another famous Spaghetti Westerner: SABATA starring LEE VAN CLEEF! What really got me with this character was the fact that he was like a ghost. Bear with me...

In SARTANA movies, it was always heavily implied that the character was an avenging spirit with spectral abilities. He pops up out of nowhere, seemingly 'bulletproof', stays one step ahead at every turn, he only goes after people that 'deserves a hot one', and his past is nil and void.
The movies are highly stylized in terms of action and pack large body counts, despite their small production budgets. Of course, Sartana being a spaghetti western, has it's share of campiness, excess, and hard to follow plotlines (depending on if you're watching an 'official' version or one of the 'bootleg' versions the genre is expected to have).

Personally, I love'em! Check out the new Spaghetti Western Bible: The Grindhouse Experience boxset thats out now--- The complete saga even carries the infamous Sartana vs. Django! How's THAT for Grindhouse?!