I just suffered through one of THE worst Lee Van Cleef films ever made — 1969’s Sabata. Apparently, it was [amazon_link id=”B000AQOHNK” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]a trilogy[/amazon_link], which is sad. In this particular movie, several pillars of society rob an Army safe containing $100,000 so they can buy the land upon which the coming railroad will be built.
One thing they didn’t consider? The presence of the master gunslinger, Sabata. That would be Lee Van Cleef, wearing the same outfit he wore in pretty much every other film — a wide-brimmed black hat and a goofy black duster big enough to hide a cow under. William Berger played a guy named Banjo. Inside his banjo was a gun.
Note that this movie came two years AFTER [amazon_link id=”B004XQO8KK” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]The Fastest Guitar Alive[/amazon_link], which starred Roy Orbison as a gunslinger whose gun was hidden in his guitar. Sabata was a big fat thief. That’s all there is to it. Either that or a memo was circulating that guns in westerns had to be hidden inside musical instruments.
Also note that Sabata was made several years after [amazon_link id=”B001U6YI92″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]The Good, the Bad and the Ugly[/amazon_link], [amazon_link id=”B003EYEF2S” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]For a Few Dollars More[/amazon_link], and [amazon_link id=”B0018O50VQ” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]How the West Was Won[/amazon_link]. Van Cleef wasn’t just starting out. He already had a slew of great westerns under his wide leather belt. Maybe there’s only room for so many spaghetti westerns with good plots in cinematic history. Maybe hurling face first into bad TV was the only option. I just don’t know.
At any rate, it made me think of a piece I did for A Traveler’s Library a while back about the fact that my favorite westerns are modern films like Unforgiven, Quigley Down Under, 3:10 to Yuma (the 2007 version), Tombstone and, yes, Brokeback Mountain, a movie I mostly sobbed through.
These movies go beyond the cliche Western films of yore, and give the characters and story some depth, not to mention great lines and soundtracks. I guess you could also put [amazon_link id=”B0000AQS0F” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Firefly[/amazon_link] in there, the ultimate space western. Browncoats rule.
What about you? What’s your favorite modern western? Or do you prefer the old classics?
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