Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Light the Fuse... Sartana Is Coming 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.

Light the Fuse. . .Sartana is Coming is arguably the most gonzo of this often pretty wild franchise, with a number of wacky set pieces and a plot that may not always be perfectly clear. The film kinds of mixes and matches certain elements from previous Sartana films, including a major character (not Sartana in this case) supposedly wrongly accused of commiting a robbery, as Sartana himself was in I Am Sartana, Your Angel of Death. The wrongly accused guy is Grand Full (Piero Lulli), whom Sartana breaks out of stir, with the two becoming partners kind of like Sartana and Buddy Ben, also in I Am Sartana, Your Angel of Death. As with several other Sartana films, a huge stash of gold is sought, though in this case there is also counterfeit loot playing into the plot mechanics.

In some ways, Light the Fuse. . .Sartana is Coming continues to hint at "supernatural" powers available to the title character, and there's at least a couple of passing allusions to a religious element (Sartana is briefly mistaken for a priest early in the film, and quotes a bit of Scripture when he tells some bad guys they're about to return to dust). A lot of the fun of this particular Sartana, though, comes courtesy of a scheming woman named Belle Manassas (Susan Scott, AKA Nieves Navarro), whose husband, the town sheriff (Massimo Serrato) may (in true Sartana fashion) be one of the bad guys. The film has some absolutely lunatic set pieces, my favorite of which comes toward the climax, with Sartana performing on a specially equipped organ. I’m about to pun horribly, so avert your eyes if you’re easily annoyed, but Sartana plays a “cannon” (with two n’s) on this delightful instrument.

Light the Fuse... Sartana Is Coming Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Light the Fuse. . .Sartana is Coming 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:

Light the Fuse. . .Sartana is Coming 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 language soundtrack was remastered from the optical negative. The English language soundtrack was remastered from an SD tape master source.

Light the Fuse. . .Sartana is Coming is another very nice looking transfer, one that shows no real appreciable signs of age related wear and tear, and one which boasts a nicely vivid and well saturated palette. Once again outré elements like cotton candy colored hair on female characters pop quite convincingly (see screenshot 2). Detail levels are consistently pleasing, with the exception of the optically printed title sequence, which understandably looks pretty rough, and some passing issues with shadow detail in some night sequences. What looks like a day for night sequence late in the film also appears just slightly murky, at least when compared to the general clarity of the rest of the presentation. A climactic scene in an old west steambath resolves quite nicely, as does the grain field in general.

Light the Fuse... Sartana Is Coming 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.

Light the Fuse... Sartana Is Coming Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Mute Strikes Again (1080p; 22:01) is an interview with actor and stuntman Sal Borgese. In Italian with English subtitles.


• Giuliano, Luciano and Me (1080p; 20:29) is an interview with screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi. In Italian with English subtitles.


• Sartana Lives (1080p; 24:14) is an archival piece with Gianni Garko and Giuliano Carnimeo. In Italian with English subtitles.


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

Light the Fuse... Sartana Is Coming Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Light the Fuse. . .Sartana is Coming is almost intentionally silly a lot of the time, but it's hugely enjoyable and has some fantastic set pieces. Technical merits are solid, and once again Arrow has provided some appealing supplements. Recommended.