A Saga Continua

The cast is as cosmopolitan as it can be : German (Dor,the director's wife , Kinski) ,French (Brice) ,English (Steele) ,Italian (Massimo Girotti aka Terence Hill) ,American (Barker), .....

But this is not my favorite Winnetou:Hugo Fregonese did a better job with "old shatterhand "even though the principal's role is reduced to his well-known philosophy ;"old shatterhand " had a better screenplay and a much more effective directing .

There are shades of "broken arrow " in it ,and too many plotholes ; the love of Lieutenant Merrill is a fait accompli; out of the blue ,he decides to marry the beautiful Indian ,and the father and Suzanne (his sister? ) accept it without a moment's hesitation ; this kind of marriage is common in westerns since "broken arrow",but they often meet a bad end (Delmer Daves ' film) or are strongly disapproved by the daddy ("gunman's walk" )

Gallic Pierre Brice is true to himself as the Indian Gandhi ; peace is the key to everything in his philosophy and his words of wisdom always make sense;he's ready to give it all to preserve it,even though he must sacrifice his love for Ribanna ;but ,a bachelor , he will be able to follow his paleface brother in further adventures; the comic relief and his six-dollar-hat are not very funny. Kinski makes up for it as the baddie: but , his count-the-steps trick is far-fetched .

This is an epic western-adventure-movie. It is highly entertaining and has in fact the potential of being a lot better than it is. Dances with Wolves reminds me a lot of this movie. And with a better script and stronger directing Winnetou II could have been a timeless piece of art like the Costner movie. The yugoslavian landscape seems a bit out of place sometimes, but the movie has a lot of the "Karl May - feeling".

This one is regarded as one of the best "Karl-May-Movies" and is my personal favorite too. Lex Barker and Pierre Brice as the famous friends Winnetou and Old Shatterhand - as dignified as always. Supported by young Terence Hill in an early important part and the best cast ever seen in a May-Movie: Klaus Kinski, Anthony Steel, Karin Dor and the gorgeous yugoslavian actors Mirko Boman and Gojko Mitic. There is an emotional and thrilling story about Winnetou and his love Ribanna. Director Reinl - husband of Ribanna-performer Karin Dor - did an excellent job: There are great shootings of the landscape and the romantic May-feeling is stronger than ever before or after this little masterpiece.

This second picture of Karl May's Winnetou trilogy has everything required on a western movie, the upcoming war over White men and Indians, peace agreement, a white soldier marrying a native girl, ambush, a cruel gang extracting oils, a Fort's soldiers, settlers have been slaughtered by outlaws, for Indians be blamed, the casting are absolutely stellar, Lex Barker, Pierre Brice, Terence Hill, Klaus Kinski, Anthony Steel and Renato Baldini, although the high point is the marvelous breathtaking Yuguslavian landscape, calm clean rivers, blue lagoon, green forests, rocky peaks and a fabulous wide natural cave, like a greatest cathedral, where the showdown took place, apart some contrived scenes the picture allowed us see this amazing place, no blue screen or studio's sets, just shot on the wildest Yuguslavia countryside, not bad at all!!!

Resume:

First watch: 2019 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7

Apache chief Pierre Brice saves Assiniboine princess Karin Dor from a guy in a bear suit. He takes her back to her village and discovers that the Assiniboines have captured cavalry officer Terence Hill and two of his men. Brice has a plan to meet with colonel Renato Baldini and make peace, so he convinces Assiniboine chief Rikard Brzeska to let Hill go with a message for the colonel, who happens to be his father. Brice and all the chiefs will come to the fort and they'll all talk peace.

On the way home, Hill sees a brutal attack on a native village by a group of men lead by Klaus Kinski. He fights them off with the help of Lex Barker, who was conveniently passing by and also happens to be pals with Brice. Kinski is working for Anthony Steel, an oil baron who wants no peace because he can use conflict with the natives as an excuse to steal their land.

Baldini and the native chiefs reach a peace agreement, mostly because Hill agrees to marry Dor (who's in love with Brice, but both of them agree to take one for the team). Steel attacks a group of settlers and blames it on the natives. It's up to Barker, Brice, Hill and comedic sidekick Eddi Arent (who I didn't mention previously because he annoys me) to stop Kinski and Steel and save the day.

One of a series of West German westerns based on the books of Karl May that have Native American heroes even though they are all played by white Europeans. This is fairly typical Euro-genre fare, not all that coherent in the plot department, but a hell of a lot of fun. It's pretty much worth seeing just to see Barker, Hill and Kinski together, but it's also just chock full of great little action set pieces.