Mannaja - A Man Called Blade

Starring:Maurizio Merli, John Steiner, Sonja Jeannine, Donald O'Brien, Salvatore Puntillo, Nino Casale, Enzo Fiermonte, Rik Battaglia, Aldo Rendine, Enzo Maggio, Sergio Tardioli, Sofia Lombardo, Philippe Leroy, Martine Brochard, Riccardo Petrazzi, JosÃ© Yepes, Franco Ukmar, Claudio Ruffini, Nello Pazzafini, Michael Forest
Director: Sergio Martino
Studio: Blue Underground
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
They call him Blade (Maurizio Merli) because mostly he lets his hatchet do his talking for him. He's searched 20 years to find the man responsible for his father's death. This is puzzling, since the guy is right where he always was and where Blade started from. The real villain of the piece is not this economic-ecological despoiler (Philippe Leroy), a shrunken husk in a wheelchair, but his lieutenant (John Steiner), a blond fascist who looks like a twit version of Rutger Hauer and sounds like a cross between John Glover and the police chief in Young Frankenstein. (Blade is also blond, with a hairdo reminiscent of Pippi Longstocking's.) Sergio Martino, whose action direction is ludicrous, was obliged to fill many scenes with fog because the last Western town set in Italy was falling down around him. This was, he claims, "the last, or maybe next-to-last" spaghetti Western. None too soon. --Richard T. Jameson
Description
Maurizio Merli, the iconic star of '70s Italian cop movies, stars as a hatchet-wielding bounty hunter with a dark past and an even more desperate future. But when he disrupts the balance of power in a corrupt mining town, he unleashes a firestorm of brutality, betrayal and cold-blooded murder. Now, one man stalks a savage land where justice walks a razor and no bullets slice deeper than vengeance. He is "A Man Called Blade." John Steiner (Salon Kitty, Caligula) and Donal O'Brien (Keoma) co-star in this muddy, bloody and extreme Spaghetti Western that's truly a cut above the rest. Directed and co-written by the notorious Sergio Martino (Torso, Mountain of the Cannibal God), "Mannaja: A Man Called Blade" has been fully restored from original Italian vault materials including its infamous "eyeball torture" scenes.

Mannaja - A Man Called Blade
Average customer rating:

Want an entertaining Italian Western...look no further!

Mama Mia! Last Charge of the Spaghetti Western

Mannaja Trois!

A sad farewell to a very exciting movie genre

Should have gotten Morricone... PLUS EASTER EGG below

Mannaja - A Man Called Blade
Starring: Maurizio Merli , John Steiner , Sonja Jeannine , Donald O'Brien , and Salvatore Puntillo
Director: Sergio Martino
Manufacturer: Blue Underground
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0001KUE7I
Release Date: 2004-04-27

Amazon.com

They call him Blade (Maurizio Merli) because mostly he lets his hatchet do his talking for him. He's searched 20 years to find the man responsible for his father's death. This is puzzling, since the guy is right where he always was and where Blade started from. The real villain of the piece is not this economic-ecological despoiler (Philippe Leroy), a shrunken husk in a wheelchair, but his lieutenant (John Steiner), a blond fascist who looks like a twit version of Rutger Hauer and sounds like a cross between John Glover and the police chief in Young Frankenstein. (Blade is also blond, with a hairdo reminiscent of Pippi Longstocking's.) Sergio Martino, whose action direction is ludicrous, was obliged to fill many scenes with fog because the last Western town set in Italy was falling down around him. This was, he claims, "the last, or maybe next-to-last" spaghetti Western. None too soon. --Richard T. Jameson

Customer Reviews:

Want an entertaining Italian Western...look no further!.......2006-03-02

A man is running through swampy land through mist and trees. Behind him, riding in slow motion comes our "iconic" anti-hero. The man keeps slipping but eventually turns to shoot at the slow motion hero on a horse. He barley raises his hand when our hero throws a hatchet that in turns slices the mans arm right off.

Yes, that is the opening of Mannaja (aka A Man Called Blade), and from that violent opening sequence, you know the film could only come from Italy. Oh Spaghetti films hold a special place in my heart. No other country is this no-holds-barred when it comes to violence and Mannaja is just plum full of Italian film clichés. We get an unlikable anti-hero, bad dubbing, extreme violence, a plot holed story, and a surreal atmosphere. Everything we Italian film fanatics love!

Mannaja, one of the very last Spaghetti Westerns, is actually one of the more entertaining of the genre I have encountered. It actually makes more sense than other films from the Country. Our anti-hero who is known as Blade...yes a man called Blade...travels to a small western town where he gets on the bad side of the towns crooked ruler after betting him in a bet. It ends up this guy tries to kill our antihero.....a bad mistake. Sure it's predictable but what Spaghetti Western isn't other than Leone's? This is just plain and simple Spaghetti Western fun and nothing more. If you like the genre, then you deserve to have Mannaja in your collection.

The major thing is what does the title Mannaja have to do with the movie? The word or name "Mannaja" is never mentioned in the film. How do you even pronounce it? I feel like a fool every time I try to say the name. Also, make sure and check out the theme song to the movie....ifs just hilarious.

Mama Mia! Last Charge of the Spaghetti Western .......2005-11-07

This review refers to "Mannaja - A Man Called Blade"(DVD/Blue Underground)

I am a lover of the Spaghetti Western. They have ranged from graphically violent to campy and comedy.They have a style of filming that makes them distinguishable from any other Western. By 1977 they had seen their day come and go. So "Mannaja", was one of the last of it's kind, and gives the genre one heck of a send off! It's a brutal look at the West,and it's action packed(and even has a little romance,but just a little).

A man called Blade(Maurizio Merli), gets his name because he is an expert with a hatchet. He's a bounty hunter and catches a very valuable outlaw, by tossing his hatchet, quicker and more accurately then any gunman can draw on him. And... relieving the bad guys of body parts while he is at it. With his prisoner in tow, and one hand short, he enters a mining town, that has no lawman. The silver baron runs the show, and he's bad enough, but his foreman is the really bad Hombre in this group.Blade manages to get the better of these corrupt guys, and a bloody battle of revenge begins.

The story is surprising. There are twists and turns that you didn't see coming.The characters are interesting. The filming is wonderful. Not only is there some great vistas to take in, but Director Sergio Martino,pays homage to Sam Peckinpah. His interweavings of two very different scenes is a fascianting view. You will have the merriment of dancing girls, pleasing the crowd, while at the same time, a bloody mass murder is going on in slow-mo outside of town. Martino is superb at cutting these contrasting events together.

If you think you may not like this one, because you prefer a six-shooter to a hatchet in a Western, don't worry, Blade is plenty good with guns as well. As he puts it: he speaks more then one language!

A fabulous job by Blue Underground with this one.It is presented in widescreen, has a very nice picture, with good colors and sounds great(Dolby Mono). It may be viewed in either the Italian or English language track,and has optional English subtitles. The director talks about the film(this is a short feature, not as commentary during the film), there is a Still Gallery, and there is a nice booklet with informative notes as well.

Get out the pasta maker, enjoy with some vino, and saddle up for one heck of a going away party for the Spaghetti Western.....Laurie

Mannaja Trois!.......2004-10-30

"Blade" is a hatchet wielding badazz mofo bounty hunter who prances into a town run by a rich tyrant who has the entire town working in his silver mine. Blade's an all around do-gooder but is also looking to settle a score with this tyrant. Blade manages to piss of the villians about two seconds after setting foot in town, and the showdown begins. Needless to say this film is hardly original. When viewing this film I can't stress enough to NOT expect anything remotely like Leone. I think that's where alot of the negative reviews come from-high expectations. I went into this film with the same mindset I'd use going into Death Wish 4: The Crackdown. I expected it to be silly, violent, and most of all, fun. And it is fun! Is this soundtrack as dreadful as the reviews below say? You bet it is! It's terrible! But in my eyes that only added more laughs to the film, and I'm glad the soundtrack is as bad as it is. These lesser Italian westerns have a thing with anachronistic music. Remember Django's Tom Jones-esque theme? Mannaja's might even be funnier than that. And I can't forget mentioning a great performance by Italian film regular John Steiner(my homie Longinus from Caligula) as the villian. Don't expect grade-A entertainment and you'll have a winner with Mannaja. Think of it this way: If The Good, Bad and The Ugly is the Gremlins of westerns, then Mannaja is the Munchies of westerns. Check it out and enjoy those tunes.

A sad farewell to a very exciting movie genre.......2004-04-02

It's commonly said - and with good reason - that the movie 'The Man Called Blade' is the last entry in the interesting genre named 'western spaghetti' that dominated the Italian movies in the sixties and seventies. But, unfortunately, this movie is a very sad farewell to an otherwise exciting genre. This movie has a simple plot - like almost all the other movies of the same kind - but so full of flaws and absurd situations that the viewer - even an addict of spaghetti westerns - will be tired and boring before the middle of the story. In fact, 'A man Called Blade' is quite a rip off of 'Keoma', a huge sucess with Franco Nero, directed by Enzo G. Castellari. Maurizio Merli was picked up by director Sergio Martino to live Blade because of his resemblance with Nero, at these times completely out of westerns movies. A routine and poor imagined story of vengeance and hate, the movie goes on and on until an old fashioned 'finale'. Good performance by John Steiner, as the villain.

Should have gotten Morricone... PLUS EASTER EGG below.......2003-09-06

The music was a real letdown for me. I think that music in a movie can become something like a supporting cast member, but this music (by Guido e Maurizio De Angelis) just didn't fit in most places. Especially when the soloist began singing. Yuck. I mean, double yuck, out of luck, upchuck. I hope they weren't trying to save money by scrimping on the score. Sometimes the very thing that can save a movie is the soundtrack, and this one just didn't cut the mustard. It didn't have any semblance of being a thoughtful composition. If it had been pressed into an album, I wonder how many people would have purchased it? I'm sorry to ramble on, but the music just pinned my emotions down on this one. Just as I would gain some interest, the music shoots it all down. Guido's score (sorry, sir) didn't need a hatchet to kill "A Man Called Blade."

Maybe it was the music, but it definitely didn't help get me into the mood of this movie, which technically is another fine transfer from an original film stock and presented by Blue Underground. Honestly? I'd rather watch the opening FBI warning (a really cool animated revolving red light instead of the plain blue page) than sit through the musical score with the lyrics being sung.

I wish Blue Underground could have given the viewer an option to turn the music off. Maybe that's why I couldn't relate to the characters. Yes it's violent and somewhat surreal, but ask me whether I cared who died? The music made me wish it would hurry and end (with no lyrics, of course). If I had a hatchet in hand while watching this, the lyrics would probably have driven me to throw at the speakers. I wished that I could have gotten past the music, but it just permeated everything.

Tech Specs and at least one Easter Egg: Region free, NTSC DVD @ 96 minutes color from an original print in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 (no full frame option) and enhanced for 16X9; English mono, Italian mono; optional English subtitles; trailer; featurette called "A Man Called Sergio (interview with director Sergio Martino); poster and production stills gallery; linear notes; a two- page pamphlet with deeper information about the movie. I found only one Easter Egg (2 previous Blue Underground discs had 3 of them that I found in each). This one is located on the Extras page. Highlight A Man Called Sergio and push RIGHT to reveal a hatchet to access.

Amazon.com

Description

Maurizio Merli, the iconic star of '70s Italian cop movies, stars as a hatchet-wielding bounty hunter with a dark past and an even more desperate future. But when he disrupts the balance of power in a corrupt mining town, he unleashes a firestorm of brutality, betrayal and cold-blooded murder. Now, one man stalks a savage land where justice walks a razor and no bullets slice deeper than vengeance. He is "A Man Called Blade." John Steiner (Salon Kitty, Caligula) and Donal O'Brien (Keoma) co-star in this muddy, bloody and extreme Spaghetti Western that's truly a cut above the rest. Directed and co-written by the notorious Sergio Martino (Torso, Mountain of the Cannibal God), "Mannaja: A Man Called Blade" has been fully restored from original Italian vault materials including its infamous "eyeball torture" scenes.

Customer Reviews:

Want an entertaining Italian Western...look no further!.......2006-03-02

Mama Mia! Last Charge of the Spaghetti Western .......2005-11-07

Mannaja Trois!.......2004-10-30

A sad farewell to a very exciting movie genre.......2004-04-02

Should have gotten Morricone... PLUS EASTER EGG below.......2003-09-06

PS- The score of two stars is for the overall DVD. If it hadn't been presented so well by Blue Underground, I would have given it only one star.

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