Mannaja
7 /10 1 Votes
Director Sergio Martino Duration Language Italian | 6.8/10 IMDb Genre Action, Drama, Thriller Country Italy | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Release date 1977 (Italy)
1980 (France)
1983/84 (Norway video) Writer Sergio Martino, Sauro Scavolini Music director Maurizio De Angelis, Guido De Angelis Screenplay Sergio Martino, Sauro Scavolini Cast Maurizio Merli (Mannaja), John Steiner (Valler), Philippe Leroy (McGowan), Sonja Jeannine (Deborah McGowan), Salvatore Puntillo (Johnny Johnny), Nino Casale (Dorman - bandits' head (as Nino Casale))Similar movies Once Upon a Time in the West , Django Unchained , The Good, the Bad and the Ugly , Blade Runner , The Great Silence , The Wild Bunch | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mannaja 1977 trailer
Mannaja (also known as A Man Called Blade) is an Italian 1977 Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Martino. The main role, Blade, is played by Maurizio Merli. Other central roles are played by John Steiner, Sonja Jeannine, Donald O'Brien, Philippe Leroy and Martine Brochard.
Contents
Mannaja is an unusual spaghetti western, in that it contains some symbolism and emotional scenes that give the viewer the feel of an adventure or horror film, particularly in the opening scene in the swamp, and the scene in the cave. Mannaja has been compared to a contemporaneous film called Keoma (1976). Like other spaghetti westerns it is sometimes rather brutal, and contains fairly graphic depictions of murder with an axe. It was banned in Sweden.
The film was released on DVD in 2002 (Region 2).
Plot
Bounty hunter Blade (Maurizio Merli), who uses a tomahawk as a throwing weapon, arrives at the mining town of Suttonville with the outlaw Burt Craven (Donald O'Brien) as his prisoner. His real motive is to kill mining big boss McGowan (Philippe Leroy) who has killed his father. Blade gives up his revenge – because McGowan “is not worth it” – and instead accepts to deliver the ransom for the mine owner's daughter (Sonja Jeannine). However, this mission fails because she turns out to be the lover of her kidnapper, McGowan's foreman Voller (John Steiner), who secretly works for a gang that regularly robs the shipments of silver from the mine. Voller then kills his boss and turns his mining empire into bloody chaos by massacring the mine workers. Blade is beaten up and buried up to his neck and left to be blinded by the sun. However, he survives and returns for a showdown with Voller.
Cast
Reception
In his investigation of narrative structures in Spaghetti Western films, Fridlund ranges Mannaja among stories obeying the "Tragic Mercenary” plot where the pursuit of a monetary motive entails the killing or wounding of someone close to the hero, who then sets out on a vengeance mission. This story appears in the very influential Django. In the case of Blade his economic arrangement with the man he should have killed sets off a course of action leading to him being tortured and to the death of the showgirl Angela, who loves him. The situation where a kidnapped woman betrays her savior because she is the lover of her would-be abductor also appears in Ten Thousand Dollars for a Massacre - another "Tragic Mercenary” story.
References
Mannaja WikipediaMannaja IMDb Mannaja themoviedb.org