Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

I Am Sartana, Your Angel of Death Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 3, 2018

Note: This film is available as part of The Complete Sartana.

One of the perhaps slightly humorous upshots of the incredible success of The Man with No Name Trilogy is that it at least contributed to an influx of often pretty similar properties featuring mysterious (if not always laconic) characters with names. Some of these so-called “Euro Westerns” (of which the “Spaghetti Westerns” were a subset) were insanely popular in their day, even if that popularity didn’t always extend to the shores of the United States (though it quite often did). A cursory sampling of films in this kind of odd niche of genre outings with their putative hero’s name in the titles might include such offerings as the Django films (Django, Django, Kill... If You Live, Shoot!, Hanging for Django, Django, Prepare a Coffin), the Trinity films (They Call Me Trinity, Trinity Is Still My Name! ), the Ringo films (A Pistol for Ringo, The Return of Ringo), the Sabata films (Sabata, Adiós, Sabata, The Return of Sabata) and/or the five Sartana films currently under discussion. What’s a little hilarious about this glut of named characters, all of whom owe at least something to the now legendary Leone - Eastwood collaborations, is that along the way character names kind of came and went, and in various markets some films were marketed as a “named” feature even if that particular character actually wasn’t even featured in the film. In fact one of the enjoyable supplements on Arrow's fairly recent A Pistol for Ringo & The Return of Ringo: Two Films by Duccio Tessari "double feature" were the commentaries by Spaghetti Western experts C. Courtney Joyner and Henry C. Parke, who kind of jokingly recount at one point how one of the Ringo films was marketed as a Sartana film in some foreign market (Joyner and Parke are on hand for these releases as well, and both describe themselves as diehard Sartana fans, and in one of their commentaries for this set also joke about how Django also ended up in a bunch of titles where the character of that name was nowhere to be found). Also kind of amusingly, the character name of Sartana was actually introduced in a "non-Sartana" film, the aforementioned The Return of Ringo, where the character was actually one of the bad guys. But Gianni Garko's characterization was so memorable that the name, if not the actual character, survived as a hero, and as Joyner and Parke recount in their commentaries on this set, Garko went to some lengths (including lawsuits) to protect his take on the character, down to the clothes Sartana wears in the various films.

One of the kind of interesting, if perhaps subliminal, aspects to If You Meet Sartana... Pray for Your Death is that Sartana’s true motives for chasing after a huge supply of gold are never really fully detailed: is he a good guy on the hunt for justice, or just another anti-hero looking to make a quick buck? I Am Sartana, Your Angel of Death makes no bones about presenting the title character as more of a stand up guy, but somewhat ironically it’s because he spends most of the film attempting to salvage his reputation after he’s falsely accused of masterminding a huge bank robbery which serves as the film’s opening sequence. As might be indicated by the film’s title, Sartana’s “supernatural” seeming powers are also elevated in this film, to the point that he may in fact be perceived as an actual angel of death.

Klaus Kinski is back as just one of a retinue of folks either out to capture Sartana (there’s a sizable bounty on his head due to the bank robbery) or at least have a skirmish or two with him along the way, but this film actually develops a “sidekick” of sorts for the hero in the form of Buddy Ben (Frank Wolff). Once again the film is full of really fun supporting turns, including Sartana “regular” Franco Pesci as another addlepated elder.

While this film may not have huge set pieces other than the opening bank robbery, it is filled to the brim with “littler” moments which may delight some viewers, including Sartana managing to lasso his rifle from his horse’s saddle at a considerable distance when he’s being shot at by a Native American who’s out to get that “dead or alive” reward money. Perhaps surprisingly, there’s not a glut of romantic interest in this particular film, and as may be indicated by the sidekick’s nickname, this might be thought of as more of a “buddy film” than some of the other Sartana outings.

I Am Sartana, Your Angel of Death Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

I Am Sartana, Your Angel of Death is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Arrow's insert booklet provides the following information on the transfer:

I Am Sartana, Your Angel of Death is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 with Italian and English mono audio. All restoration work was carried out at L'Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna. The original 35mm camera negative was scanned in 2K resolution on a pin-registered Arriscan and was graded on Digital Vision's Nucoda Film Master. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, picture instability and other instances of film wear were repaired or removed through a combination of digital restoration tools and techniques. The mono Italian and English soundtracks were remastered from the optical sound track negatives.

Starting with this second film, there's a noticeable and at times rather substantial uptick in video quality due to the source being the negative. From the impressive opening credits sequence (which may owe a bit to Saul Bass and then trendy 007), there's really nice looking saturation and clarity. There are still occasional density variations (keep your eyes peeled at around 45:00 during a stagecoach scene), and there's a noticeable downturn in quality at around 1:22:08 that leads me to believe a secondary element had to be utilized for a brief snippet, but otherwise this transfer boasts really excellent detail levels and a very nicely saturated palette. This film has a kind of funny montage sequence of "club hopping" featuring lots of opticals, and grain understandably spikes during these moments, but otherwise the grain field looks great and resolves without any problems. There are also occasional deficits in shadow detail during some dark or nighttime scenes. As with some other Sartana films, there may have been some defective or damaged lenses, since things can look just slightly out of focus at times, especially toward the sides of the frame.

I Am Sartana, Your Angel of Death Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

All five of the films feature DTS-HD Master Audio mono tracks in both Italian and English (the covers incorrectly state LPCM 1.0, for what that's worth). There's no significant difference in fidelity and overall sound between the five films, with a couple of exceptions noted below. I opted for the original Italian mixes, while also regularly toggling to the English language tracks for comparison's sake. There is surprisingly little difference in amplitude and general sound quality between the languages, with the possible exception of I Am Sartana, Your Angel of Death, where the English language track sounds tinnier, especially with regard to music. All of the Italian language tracks have noticeable hiss, but no other really problematic elements. While sync is loose, as is mentioned in the booklet (due to the Italian tradition of post looping everything), fidelity is surprisingly robust in these films, offering good support for dialogue and effects, which can admittedly sound a little boxy at times (gunfire especially). All five films boast rather interesting music scores, not necessarily as "Morricone-esque" as one might expect, and in fact there's an almost Bacharach like 6/8 theme for I Am Sartana, Your Angel of Death. Several scores feature potentially bright instruments like harpsichords, which sound clear without sounding strident. Some of the cues in Have a Good Funeral My Friend... Sartana Will Pay sound influenced by the then insanely popular music of Lalo Schifrin for television's Mission: Impossible, with bongos establishing tension. Interestingly, Light the Fuse... Sartana Is Coming's English language track has some underscore where the original Italian doesn't.

I Am Sartana, Your Angel of Death Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary by C. Courtney Joyner and Henry Parke


• For the Life of a Stuntman (1080p; 24:18) is an interview with Sal Borgese. In Italian with English subtitles.


• Violent Tales for Kids (1080p; 19:10) is an interview with screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi. In Italian with English subtitles.


• Gallery (1080p) is culled from the Mike Siegel archive.

I Am Sartana, Your Angel of Death Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This second Sartana film takes the template established in the first film and then repeatedly goes for the gusto as a whole host of people come after the title character for their own personal reasons. Garko continues to impress as the enigmatic Sartana, and once again the film has a ton of fun supporting turns. Technical merits are generally excellent, and the supplements quite enjoyable. Recommended.