cinema history class: adios, sabata (1970)

The session: Viva Sabata!
Four Movies featuring Sabata, a James Bond of the wild West

As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL.

Week 2: Adios, Sabata (1970)
Directed by Gianfranco Parolini

My Level of Prior Knowledge
I'd heard of it, but didn't really know much about it except that there were several films with the Sabata character. Sort of like Sartana or Django.

Plot:
An enigmatic gunslinger arrives in a corrupt frontier town where a stolen gold shipment has entangled politicians, businessmen, and outlaws alike. Playing rival factions against each other with wit, gadgets, and lethal precision, he uncovers the conspiracy behind the theft and ensures that justice—on his own terms—is served.

Reaction and Other Folderol:
One of the more interesting bits of trivia surrounding Adiós, Sabata is its casting sleight-of-hand. Lee Van Cleef—who originated the role of Sabata—was unavailable, having been contracted to star in The Magnificent Seven Ride! as Chris Adams, a role famously played by Yul Brynner in the original The Magnificent Seven. So Brynner, in a bit of cinematic role-swapping irony, stepped into Van Cleef’s boots and became Sabata.

I’ll admit I’m in the minority here, but I actually preferred Brynner’s take on the character. His Sabata has more gravitas—less of a wink, more of a stare. The humor is still present, but it’s dialed back in favor of poise and authority, with Brynner striking deliberate poses that feel almost mythic. Most of the room leaned toward Van Cleef’s version precisely because of its playful, ironic edge; I liked that this Sabata took himself (and the stakes) more seriously.

In fact, Adiós, Sabata often feels less like a sequel than a careful remake, following much of the same structural DNA as the first film. The character Ballantine is essentially a stand-in for Banjo: the same greedy, slippery ally you can’t quite trust, but who sticks around as long as the arrangement benefits him. Like Banjo before him, Ballantine ultimately tries to make off with the gold—only to be outplayed by Sabata in almost the same fashion.

Even the action escalation feels familiar. When straightforward gunplay wasn’t enough in the first film, Sabata introduced dynamite as a recurring visual flourish. Here, that role is filled by nitroglycerin, with explosions punctuating shootouts in much the same way. Likewise, the flashy physical gimmicks have simply been swapped out: the coin-tossing and acrobatics of the original are replaced by a character who can hurl a metal ball with his feet at terrifying speed and accuracy. One improbable trick retires; another clocks in.

One thing that did grate on me, though, was seeing actors from the first film reappear in very similar roles—but as entirely different characters. I know this is a common spaghetti-western practice, but it chips away at the internal logic of the world. For me, it breaks the illusion of continuity and makes the whole thing feel more like repertory theater than a shared cinematic universe.

Still, despite all the repetition, I ended up rating Adiós, Sabata higher than its predecessor. The familiar framework works better for me when it’s treated with a straighter face, and Brynner’s more solemn interpretation elevates material that might otherwise feel like a retread.

And then there’s Joe, who gave it a ten—because in this universe, Yul Brynner plays Sabata seriously, and that’s a ten—while confidently insisting that the nonexistent alternate-universe version starring Lee Van Cleef doing it more humorously would also be a ten, which is impressive given that he apparently now reviews movies that were never made.