Yahsi Bati - Die osmanischen Cowboys

Cem Yilmaz is a great comedian and has so many fans in Turkey. Whatever he does is acceptable and mostly laughable for many Turks. Therefore, he has got a good degree of creditability as well. I am thinking that 'Yahsi Bati' is the bast Cem Yilmaz movie only comparing to GORA and AROG. As I mentioned I also think that Cem Yilmaz is a clever and funny guy but I was horrified when I saw GORA as I did not like it a bit. I must admit that after three goes I could not watch the entire movie and gave up. With some of its flaws AROG was a good film but not great. I think Yahsi Bati made me laugh more than the other two. I also believe that classification for the film should be +15 as there are way too many jokes containing swear words ***the kinds that are not approved by Turkish people on the other hand used on daily base by many -)*** I appreciate Cem Yilmaz's efforts to make good films and I believe that all three movies were great when it comes to visual work especially Yahsi Bati was superb.

The movie is about two Ottoman officials trying to deliver a diamond from the Sultan to the American President. On the way they get robbed. Penniless they start a journey to find the diamond and go back to their country.

All cast was successful and there were not a single person I disliked in the cast. I also have the feeling that his new project will take us to China and after Yahsi Bati I have a feeling that I am looking forward to it.

For most cases, quite poor art work is seen in Turkish movies. But Cem Yilmaz and his team are doing a great job by designing environment with all its details. Well written scenario and lively characters are making this movie as one of landmarks of early Turkish cinema history.

Since Cem Yilmaz's movies are becoming worse and worse every time (i.e. A.R.O.G), my expectations were really low on this movie. On some of the aspects, these were met. For starters, the screenplay is really dull, based on all the Turkish cliché jokes about Wild West. The jokes are not funny at all and the level of them are too low. And as in most of the movies of Cem Yilmaz, the scenario is not coherent, it's like jokes about Wild West in a stand-up comedy, which have been cast in a movie and glued together. The worst thing is that there is an inconsistency in the movie; it's supposed to be Ottoman Turks in Wild West but all the lead characters (including the Americans) are acting as if they are Turkish such as the Sheriff of Cannonball and his family. Still, the art directors has done a high toned job - they must have had worked a lot on the storyboard, there are real nice scenes through the movie - I have to say the costumes are quite good, too. In conclusion, it turns out to be a movie not to waste time on, maybe to be watched on a Sunday afternoon on TV while doing some other stuff.

After watching this movie, you will find very hard to get rid of the image of two Ottomans in the Wild West- image that implants itself into your mind for a numerous of days after consuming the product. But despite all efforts, this movie (that was designed to be a hilarious comedy) does not live up to expectations. The main slow down and confusion is resulted by a strange and naive holes in the script during it's middle part. Almost useless scenes in the church that have no motive, intro or outro, confusing turn-overs (the sheriff is talking friendly to the lead guy in one of the scenes, the lead guy exits the scene, 10 seconds later the message-boy approaches the lead guy to tell him that the sheriff is challenging him to a death-match duel)makes you think that you missed the whole sequence in the middle. Turn-overs in the script, mainly designed just to produce the thin motive for the next (hopefully) comic scene are not very seldom. But the comic outcome IS seldom. Maybe the source of real trouble in this Sorak- Yılmaz collaboration is the gap between language-based, sitcom jokes (that are a mother- ground for Yilmaz comedy-style) and Sorak's effort to tell the story more cinematic,picture-wise. Final product is trapped somewhere in the middle - sitcom diluted with something supposed-to-be a serious cinema. Usage of more than one camera on some scenes sometimes result with a series of lined shots that have no readable sign - shots that are used just as a bridge to squeeze timing and jump over the long gaps in the scene. They look more like a "don't mind this" inserts, rather than a planned shots. Anyway, visually film looks good, story-wise looks bad, comedy-wise looks decent enough, but not hilarious - as one could expect from a master comedian Cem Yımaz definitely is.

Spending large amounts of money is not enough for a good movie. But in a country like Turkey where capital is really rare Cem Yilmaz was lucky. He is a great comedian, and has proved himself as a great entertainer. Thus it was not difficult for him to secure the investment for this big project. That's why we were filled with expectations more than the usual. At the end it was a big disappointment; the script was not strong. The story was weak and so were the jokes. I am sure the next movie of Cem Yilmaz will be full of lessons learned from this movie. We, the Turkish audience, are expecting the next big hit from him. Our expectations are justified when we think about his talent.