zardoz-13 Gianfranco Parolini's "Adios, Sabata" ranks as one of the top 10 Spaghetti westerns of all time. Its' scenic photography, clever dialogue, marvelously choreographed gunfights, fantastic music, and harsh rugged scenery make this outlandish Yul Brynner horse opera worth watching. No, it has nothing to do with the Lee Van Cleef movies oaters "Sabata" (1969) and "Return of Sabata" (1971). The original title for this exhilarating Yul Brynner shoot'em up was "Indio Black." Like most successful Spaghetti westerns, it adopted the name of a profitable screen hero. Scores of westerns were named after "Django," "Sartana," and "Trinity." Indeed, where Lee Van Cleef's Sabata is elegant and well-dressed, Indio adopts the garb of a cavalry scout. He wears a fringed buckskin outfit. Unlike Sabata, who relied primarily on a derringer, Indio wields a sawed-off, lever-action, repeating carbine with a sideways ammunition magazine. He reserves the last chamber in the magazine to a cheroot. After he kills them, he likes to enjoy his tobacco. Black brandishes a derringer, too, but rarely uses it to kill. In fact, "Indio Black" was the only Spaghetti western that Brynner made, but it qualifies as a superior sagebrusher with provocative characters, a larger-than-life plot with loads of narrative foreshadowing, and one of composer Bruno Nicolai's liveliest orchestral scores. Parolini lacks the baroque visual artistry of Sergio Leone. However, he knew how to tell a good story and he could arrange interesting set-pieces. Parolini co-authored the screenplay with Renato Izzo who had penned "Kill and Pray" and "A Man Called Amen."Yul Brynner plays a sympathetic, sharp-shooting, American soldier-of-fortune in black. He supports the Mexican revolutionaries in their cause to expel the Austrians from their country during the post American Civil War period. Hollywood hasn't made that many westerns about Emperor Maximilian's rule in Mexico. The best of the bunch is Robert Aldrich's "Vera Cruz," rivaled only by Don Siegel's "Two Mules for Sister Sara." As the villain, Austrian Colonel Skimmel dresses as elegantly as he shoots straight, and he behaves like an egotist. Indeed, he has commissioned a portrait of himself, apparently for himself, since he has nobody living with him. Skimmel has no qualms about killing and makes an excellent villain. He detests informers, uses their information, and then kills them. Half-way between Sabata and Skimmel is Ballantine. This soldier-of-fortune (Dean Reed of "God Made Them... I Kill Them") is an opportunists who throws his lot in with Sabata. Actually, he has no qualms about getting whatever there is for himself and nobody else. ("Three Crosses of Death" lenser Sandro Mancori captures the arid Spanish landscape in all its eternal grandeur and the vistas are beautiful. Mancori and Parolini hail from the school of film-making that relied heavily on zoom shots. "Indio Black" has more than its share of zoom-out shots and zoom-in shots. "Indio Black" is a hugely entertaining, late 1860s epic that boasts the usual ritualistic duels and gunfights, intrigue, situations, and surprises.The action opens at a Catholic mission in the wilderness as the priest Father Mike addresses a young Mexican village boy, Juanito (Luciano Casamonica of "Tepepa") laments the descent of mankind into savagery. "There is too much violence in the world." Juanito reminds him that the Murdock brothers who stole everything from them and they deserve punishment. Ever gentle Father Mike replies, "You must try to forgive. Not sink into revenge." Colonel Skimmel, a manacled, bewhiskered, autocrat in a crisp uniform. He likes to demonstrate his marksmanship with a rifle. Skimmel's favorite practice is to turn loose prisoners below on the drill grounds and let them see if they can outrun him without being shot down. Colonel Skimmel never misses. Meanwhile, in Texas, the Murdock brothers show up at the County Hunter Agency and shoot it out with Sabata. Mind you, they don't stand a chance against Sabata. Sabata wipes them out without getting a scratch. Parolini does an excellent job orchestrating this opening shoot-out. The three Murdocks ride into the station. One drives a wagon with a coffin on it. "We're all set for you to go out in style," the oldest Murdock brother boasts." A weather vane whirls around in front of the station, and the duelists warm up with each. Before they open fire on each other, Sabata and old man Murdock provide a sample of their deadly marksmanship. They start the vane spinning with their bullets, and they are told that once the vane comes to a stop, they can blast away at each other. Even after Sabata has killed them, he fires more shots at them. A Murdock hanging on a corral fence falls when Sabata's bullets smash into the railing. Sabata shoots the coffin lid so it falls shut on another dead Murdock. After the gunfight, Señor Ocaño (Franco Fantasia of "The Lion of St. Mark") approaches Sabata about helping them. Sabata agrees to help them and gives the money to Juanito to take back to Father Mike. Basically, our hero has agreed to find out when the gold leaves the fort at Guadalupe. He is also supposed to tell the revolutionaries which road the gold travels and he will make arrangements with the men who will sell the revolution firearms. Ocaño informs his ally, Escudo (Pedro Sanchez of "Any Gun Can Play"), about Sabata, but Escudo hates that the revolution must depend on a foreign soldier-of-fortune. Colonel Skimmel has cooked up some schemes about smuggling a horde of gold out of the fort at Guadalupe. Writer & director Parolini does an excellent job of setting up and paying off several situations. The opening gunfight is exemplary. Colonel Skimmel's model of a sailing vessel perched atop a dresser is wired to the highest drawer so that when an unsuspecting fool opens the drawer, the movement trips the small canon sticking out of the side of the ship. If you love Spaghetti westerns, you owe it to yourself to watch "Adios, Sabata."

kellyadmirer This is one of the strangest westerns ever made, and that includes the various incarnations of the spaghetti variety. And it isn't all bad. Yul Brynner is at the top of his game, and that is saying something. But everything around him is so bizarre that it's almost like walking into an episode of "The Prisoner," with nothing looking quite right and nobody taking things quite seriously enough. The difference is that there, it's not supposed to look like it makes sense. Here, unfortunately, it is supposed to - I think.Anyway, Yul plays your standard-issue cool, unshakable, unbeatable gunfighter, naturally clad all in black, the kind that pops up with great regularity in bad movies. But he is such a fine actor that he adds a knowing look here, a smirk there to show an intelligence usually missing in these kind of heroes. He even plays classical piano - Clint Eastwood never did THAT.But he isn't given much to play off. Dean Reed (who?) plays the closest thing to a buddy he has here, a completely out-of-place traitor to the infamous Mexican Maximilian government (and to everyone else). As is always, always, always the case in these films about the Maximilian days, it all comes down to the government's gold, and who gets it. I won't spoil the ending, but if you've seen any other film about the Maximilian days, you already know who will get the gold that everybody is after. More evidence of a poor script....The plot itself is pretty much beside the point, though. Even Yul, good as he is, is really just window dressing. The really striking thing about this film is the villains. Maximilian and his henchmen are always portrayed so originally in films about the period. In the fine "Veracruz," they were portrayed as medieval French knights. In "Undefeated," basically overdressed locals. Here, they are Austrians (yes, you read that right, Austrians) wearing bowler hats (yes, big old bowlers in the hot sun) and three piece suits (no, I'm really not kidding). Come on, where else are you going to see grimy revolutionaries in hand-to-hand combat with downtown bankers? Seriously! And Blofeld, I mean "Colonel Skimmer," is busy adjusting his monocle (!) while pulling the strings and using prisoners for his target practice.Worth it for the surreal nature of the bad guys, the glaringly obvious references to better spaghetti westerns (the visuals, the music, the ubiquitous musical watch, the reference to burying the gold in a cemetery), and of course, unforgettable Yul.

ma-cortes The film talks about Sabata or Indio Black (Yul Brynner) , a gunfighter dressed in dark buckskin with fringes . He along with a motley group of revolutionary bandits have purports to steal a wagon loaded of gold from a devious Austrian Colonel called Skimmel (Gerard Herter) serving to Emperor Maximiliano during the Mexican Civil War against Benito Juarez . The misfit group is formed by different characters each one with particular ability , as the deaf-mute (Sal Borgese) is an expert thrower of balls , the dancer Gitano or Gypsy (Joseph Persaud) who does a Flamenco dance of death ; besides a fat , ironic Mexican (Pedro Sanchez or Ignacio Spalla acting in similar roles to Spaghetti idol Fernando Sancho) and a cocky , ruddy young man (the singer Dean Reed , early deceased) . The picture contains Western action , gun-play , comedy , tongue-in-cheek and a little bit of violence . The film gets the comic remarks from Western parody united the features of typical Spaghetti as violent confrontation , ambitious antiheroes , bloody and spectacular showdown with several deaths , quick zooms and extreme baddies . This was not originally a Sabata film , the original Italian title translates as "Indio Black, you know what? You're a big son of a..." . Indio Black being the character played by Yul Brynner , but the title and Brynner's character name were changed for the American release to cash in on Sabata (1969) , the original film . Yul Brynner as a tough gunfighter with technical weaponry (like a Western James Bond) is enjoyable , similarly the previous Sabata : Lee Van Cleef , who was playing the role as 'Chris' in the following to first entry ¨The Seven magnificent¨ whose starring was the famous bald . At the same time Brynner filmed ¨Catlow¨ by Sam Wanamaker also in a lookalike role and similar plot , but it also narrates the robbing a Mexican gold shipment . Gerard Herter as a nasty and cruel Austrian officer with monocle named Colonel Skimmel is magnificent , but he repeats the role who starred in ¨The big gundown¨ (by Sergio Sollima with Lee Van Cleef) also with Nieves Navarro , here playing a very secondary role as a gorgeous saloon dancer . Bruno Nicolai musical score is lively and atmospheric , he's an usual collaborator to Ennio Morricone . The picture was well produced by Albert Grimaldi (¨Trilogy of dollars¨ producer) . The film was professionally directed by Frank Kramer (pseudonym of Gianfranco Parolini) who made the original and best ¨Sabata¨, continuing with ¨The return of Sabata¨ ; besides directing another Spaghetti hero : ¨Sartana¨ with Gianni Garco and Klaus Kinski, and his last Western again with Lee Van Cleef : ¨Diamante Lobo¨ . The flick will appeal to Yul Brynner fans and Spaghetti Western enthusiasts.

dbborroughs Sort of sequel to the earlier Sabata with Lee Van Cleef, this was filmed as Indio Black and is known as that in several countries. The title was changed when the distributor paid for the right to use the name Sabata from the original films producer. The result is Sabata becomes a dead ringer for Chris, Yul Brynner's character from the Magnificent Seven films (a character Van Cleef was playing in a movie shot at the same time as this).Aren't the back stage maneuvering of Spaghetti Westerns fun? Some times the stories are more fun than the movies.Fortunately this movie is more fun than the story.The plot has Sabata (Yul Brenner) helping Mexican revolutionaries attempting to over throw the Emperor Maximilian. Sabata is to steal some gold and then use it to buy guns to attack an evil General. However things don't go as planned and when they go to steal the gold someone else is already there. Add to the whole mix spies, greed and some odd left turns and you get one entertaining, but not very coherent movie.Don't get me wrong I like this movie a great deal, I just wish it made some sense. Characters appear out of left field when it suits the plot, people don't do anything logical (I mean if you just stole a wagon full of gold you'd make sure that the gold was really there wouldn't you?), after a certain point its never clear if they are keeping the gold or giving it to the revolution. Its enough to drive you crazy if you let it. I didn't since a good many of the spaghetti westerns I've seen make even less sense then this one.If you like Westerns this is one to see. Its perfect for a rainy Sunday afternoon. I'm still not sure if I think of Brenner's character as Sabata, but it doesn't matter since no matter what he's called he's a kick ass hero with a smart ass mouth. What more could you want?