The Complete Sartana Collection (1968-1970) (Arrow Video) - June 26, 2018

[MifuneFan]

Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name spawned imitations, variations and shameless rip-offs keen to emulate his success at the box office. Within months of A Fistful of Dollars’ release, Giuliano Gemma was playing Ringo, who was then followed by Franco Nero’s Django, Tony Anthony’s The Stranger and Gianni Garko’s Sartana – each providing their own twist on the Eastwood antihero, and each of them then subject to their own spate of unofficial sequels, spoofs and cash-ins.

Sartana tapped into more than just his Spaghetti Western predecessors – a mysterious figure, he has a spectral quality, aided by his Count Dracula-alike cloak which also nods towards comic strip figure Mandrake the Magician, with whom he shares he shares a penchant for card tricks. He takes pride in his appearance unlike the Eastwood’s dusty wanderer or Nero’s mud-caked drifter. And there’s a dose of James Bond too in his fondness for gadgetry and the droll sense of humour.

Unsurprisingly, this unique figure in the genre was treated to four official follow-ups. The Complete Sartana collects all five films, presented here in brand-new restorations: If You Meet Sartana... Pray for Your Death, I Am Sartana, Your Angel of Death, Have a Good Funeral My Friend... Sartana Will Pay, Light the Fuse... Sartana Is Coming, and Sartana's Here... Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin, in which George Hilton replaced Garko in the lead role.

LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
• Limited Edition Blu-ray collection of all five official Sartana films (2500 copies)
• Brand-new 2K restoration of If You Meet Sartana... Pray for Your Death from original film materials, carried out by Arrow Films exclusively for this release
• Brand-new 2K restorations of I Am Sartana, Your Angel of Death, Have a Good Funeral My Friend... Sartana Will Pay, Light the Fuse... Sartana Is Coming, and Sartana's Here... Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin from original camera negatives, carried out by Arrow Films exclusively for this release
• Original Italian and English soundtracks on all five films
• Uncompressed mono 1.0 PCM audio
• Newly translated English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
• Audio commentary on If You Meet Sartana... Pray for Your Death by filmmaker Mike Siegel
• Audio commentaries on I Am Sartana, Your Angel of Death and Have a Good Funeral My Friend... Sartana Will Pay by Spaghetti Western experts C. Courtney Joyner and Henry Parke
• Gianfranco Parolini on If You Meet Sartana… Pray for Your Death, a brand-new interview with the writer-director
• Fabbio Piccioni on If You Meet Sartana… Pray for Your Death, a brand-new interview with the writer • Sal Borgese on I Am Sartana, Your Angel of Death and Light the Fuse… Sartana Is Coming, two brand-new interviews with the actor
• Ernesto Gastaldi on I Am Sartana, Your Angel of Death and Light the Fuse… Sartana Is Coming, two brand-new interviews with the writer
• Roberto Dell’Acqua on Have a Good Funeral My Friend... Sartana Will Pay, a brand-new interview with the actor
• Sartana Lives, an archive featurette on Light the Fuse… Sartana Is Coming featuring interviews with actor Gianni Garko and director Giuliano Carnimeo • Sartana Shoots First, a brand-new interview with George Hilton on Sartana's Here... Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin
• Erika Blanc on Sartana's Here... Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin, a brand-new interview with the actor
• Tony Askin on Sartana's Here... Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin, a brand-new interview with the actor
• Brand-new video essay on the major actors and supporting players in the official Sartana films
• Galleries of original promotional images from the Mike Siegal Archive for all five films
• Limited edition packaging with reversible sleeves featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Matthew Griffin
• Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the films by Roberto Curti and an extensive Spaghetti Western timeline by Howard Hughes