Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

If You Meet Sartana... Pray for Your 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.

The first “official” Sartana film quickly establishes at least some elements of the template which would be followed in virtually all of the four sequels also included in this set, with bad guys (including occasional “guest villain” Klaus Kinski, billed as Kinsky) taking out innocent bystanders, only to have Sartana (Gianni Garko) appearing almost magically (actually seeming to defy the laws of physics), and then at least attempting to take out the bad guys, often with a kind of cool double chambered Derringer. While Sartana is at least relatively more talkative than the unnamed Eastwood character in the Leone films, there is still a bit of mystery surrounding the character, and in fact the first film never really elucidates who exactly Sartana is or why he’s on a quest for a rather elusive cache of gold.

As some of the supplements on this set mention, the image of Sartana is at least as important as any “character development” that little things like dialogue might add to the mix, and Sartana is a rather odd stylistic mix of (again, as mentioned at various points in supplements) Dracula (e.g., black cape) and James Bond (e.g, some of the tricked out weapons). (As I watched all five films in this set, I personally tended to start thinking of the "correct" analog maybe being the television version of The Wild Wild West, not just due to the similar time frame, but also due to the sometimes pretty whimsical "devices" that Sartana uses.) The kind of inherent “cool factor” of how Sartana looks helps this film, and frankly most of the sequels, to overcome certain narrative deficiencies, which in this particular case include what exactly Sartana’s motives with regard to the gold might be.

As with most of the other Sartana outings, the film is stuffed to the gills with fun supporting turns, which in this film include none other than Sydney Chaplin, son of Charlie who at this point in his career may have still been licking his wounds from his Broadway bouts with one Barbra Streisand in the stage version of Funny Girl. Director Gianfranco Parolini, working under the pseudonym Frank Kramer, also helps to establish certain stylistic proclivities which most of the rest of the sequels would also pursue, including ubiquitous uses of zooms and skewed angles and/or framings which may have some viewers reaching for the Dramamine.

If You Meet Sartana... Pray for Your Death Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

If You Meet Sartana. . .Pray for Your Death is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Arrow's insert booklet contains the following information on the transfer:

If You Meet Sartana. . .Pray for Your Death is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with Italian and English mono audio. A 35mm print was scanned in 2K resolution on a pin-registered Arriscan at OCN Digital. The film was graded on Digital Vision's Nucoda Film Master and restored at R3Store Studios. The English-language soundtrack was sourced from the 35mm print and remastered at Deluxe Media. There are time in which audio synchornisation will appear loose against the picture, due to the audio being recorded in post-production. This presentation still exhibits some wear and damage to the picture and soundtrack, in keeping with the condition of the print elements. The Italian language soundtrack was remastered from an SD tape master source. There were instance of severe damage on this master where the English language track had to be substituted.

This is the only film in the set not to be sourced off of a camera negative (as well as being the only presentation in 1.85:1), and there's a noticeable difference in quality, the most noticeable element being some rather large (and at times long lasting) scratches that show up. The first is kind of orange colored and occurs during the opening sequence (which includes some optically printed credits, where picture quality understandably degrades), but there are green tinted vertical scratches that accrue slightly to the left of center after about the one hour mark. Densitites are a bit variable here, but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised overall with the vividness of the palette, though at times things looked just slightly brown/yellow to my eyes. Detail levels are quite good, especially in close-ups. While grain understandably tends to look a little ragged in opticals, otherwise it resolves without any problems and adds a nicely organic look to the viewing experience.

If You Meet Sartana... Pray for Your 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.

If You Meet Sartana... Pray for Your Death Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary by Mike Siegel


• If You Meet Frank Kramer. . . (1080p; 22:25) is an interview with director Gianfranco Parolini, and is one of the oddest things I've seen recently. Mr. Parolini, who evidently expired shortly after this piece was recorded, seems to be adrift in a stream of consciousness sometimes, talking about crowdfunding a "new" project that he's been working on for decades, and occasionally even talking about Sartana. If this seemingly sweet man wasn't so old when this thing was made, I'd suggest this might be a piece of performance art, but one way or the other, it's not to be missed.


• Light the Fuse: Sartana's Casting (1080p; 16:43) is a fun overview by Jonathan Bygraves of some of the faces you'll come to recognize if you watch all five films in this set.


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

If You Meet Sartana... Pray for Your Death Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If You Meet Sartana... Pray for Your Death is a really fun introduction to the "real" Sartana, and it boasts a colorful supporting cast along with the charismatic Garko in what is arguably his signature role. I frankly found some of the sequels even more enjoyable (in a kind of gonzo way) than this first Sartana outing, but all of the elements that have made this franchise a cult item are here, and Arrow has provided a release with good (if occasionally problematic) video and audio, and some nice supplements. Recommended.