El tesoro de manitú

This is by far the best German film I have ever seen, and it is most definitely one of the funniest I've ever seen in my entire life. The comedic timing with Abahachi and Ranger were perfect, and Winnietouch added even more of a twist and even more laughs - being a gay Indian. This movie was meant to bash a German writer back in (I'm not sure) the late 1800's who wrote about the American Wild West, even though he had never been there. So of course, his stories were ridiculous and often hard to believe. "Der Schuh des Manitu" embodies everything a spoof should be, with love affairs, gay Indians, misunderstandings, random happenings, and, of course, a truly spectacular cast! I hope this encourages everyone who reads this to definitely check out this movie, because it's definitely worth it!!

Well, you shouldn't expect a good story-line or high-drama. But if you expect laughs and some movie-parodies your at home. You will notice a lot of scenes are spoofed from classics. The cast definitely had a lot of fun making the movie. The shots are great.

So to sum up the story: Abahachi borrows money from the apache. Unfortunately the son of the apache chief gets killed by Santa Maria (the villain), who also steels the money. So Ranger and Abahachi go look for a treasure map, to find a diamond, Abahachi once hid a long time ago.

The story is secondary, the emphasis on this movie is on FUN. I gave it a 9. Go see it, and wait till the end. After the credits Winnetouch has a little scene.

I think this movie is great, one of the very rare funny German movies that made me laugh really hard. the accents are funny, it probably isn't that interesting in English. the gay jokes are good, but not mean, rather nice and funny!! the actors are great, the roles are too funny. even if some jokes might be a bit low, they still make you laugh like hell. simple, but great jokes make the movie so great to watch. I remember one scene, where Ranger talks to Uschi, who stands behind a mirror and you see Uschi's head and Rangers body :D great!! the names are all very fitting, you already know how the person is when you hear his name, things like "Listiger Lurch" get lost through the translation :( probably only interesting for a German speaking audience 4 1/2 stars out of 5

If you are not fluent in German my summary line might not make much sense to you. It is actually a riff on something that is being said in the movie (with a twist since they say the exact opposite - "ich bin mit der Gesamtsituation unzufrieden")! But that aside and as you can tell, I really did enjoy myself rewatching this. And I remember why we were into the whole Bully making movies thing. He seems like a good guy in general, but I had some issues with some of his other movies, that didn't seem to glue as good as this one did. But that is always a personal and subjective thing - you may like everything he did and if that is the case, I sincerely can say: good for you.

But back to this and while I have bookmarked to rewatch the movies this is based on (Winnetou movies, the original trilogy that was made in Germany) and it is a nice throwback. Not all jokes are actually hitting their marks, but more than enough to make this as enteraining a spoof movie as I have seen from the best ones coming from America ... the love for the original movies is real .. and you can tell. I don't think you have to know them to enjoy this, but it doesn't hurt. You also shouldn't be too concerned about political correctness ... you may have issues while watching if you care about that.

To appreciate the full nuances of this movie a very good grasp of German and particularly Bavarian slang is a must. Without it it's simply an average slapstick comedy and any review of it is destined to miss the mark. The movie simply lives from the German dialogue, especially the slang. I'd say watch it in English or subtitles, by all means, but don't write a review since you probably missed 50% of the real funny stuff. It'd be the same as writing a review about the German dubbed version of Romeo and Juliet. Why bother?