The Complete Sartana Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		5.0
Overall		3.5

The Complete Sartana Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 3, 2018

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.

Reviews of the five films in this set can be accessed by clicking on the following links:

If You Meet Sartana... Pray for Your Death Blu-ray review

I Am Sartana, Your Angel of Death Blu- ray review

Sartana's Here... Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin Blu-ray review

Have a Good Funeral My Friend... Sartana Will Pay Blu-ray review

Light the Fuse... Sartana Is Coming Blu- ray review

The Complete Sartana Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Video quality of each release is assessed in the above linked reviews.

The Complete Sartana Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Audio quality of each release is assessed in the above linked reviews.

The Complete Sartana Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Supplements included with each release are detailed in the above linked reviews. Additionally, this is another nicely packaged set from Arrow, housed in a sturdy chipboard slipbox which also includes a nicely appointed booklet with writing and stills.

The Complete Sartana Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Sartana may not have the (no?) name recognition that some of the other Spaghetti Western heroes do, but if you've never seen any of these films, you're in for a treat. They're all well paced, many feature some pretty outlandish set pieces, and performances tend to be highly enjoyable, if sometimes intentionally cartoonish. Once again Arrow has provided a really handsomely packaged set with generally excellent technical merits and outstanding supplements. Highly recommended.