Western. A film produced by the East German film studio DEFA, created with the participation of socialist Poland, Bulgaria, and friendly Cuba, where the main role was played by the famous Yugoslav actor, "Honored Indian of the Soviet Union" Goiko Mitic. The fifth picture out of twelve that I looked at, and here's my brief opinion - Where there is oil, there is death. I will say right away that there are no shortcomings in this picture, but there is a small clarification, which I will mention in a separate paragraph, but for now, let me focus your attention on the expressive merits of this western.
So, here they are:
1. The story told - the picture tells that on the land of the Shoshone Indian tribe the pale-faced people found oil, and entered into an agreement with the tribe, according to which the Indians receive part of the money, but for some time several Indian chiefs are mysteriously killed, which attracts the attention of the local sheriff , his new assistant and Black Leopard (Goiko Mitic), one of the leaders. And then it started spinning. This picture looks more like a detective story than a classic western. Almost the whole picture is under investigation, who benefited from the death of the leaders? The answer is of course obvious, but there is no evidence. Moreover, in this picture, the hero of Goiko Mitic plays the role of the second protagonist, yielding the role to a new deputy sheriff, who wants to find out the whole truth and bring the criminals to clean water. The ending of the story turned out to be both good and sad at the same time, but it is better than in the previous chronological picture (White Wolves). There are scenario twists. The story is intriguing and makes you follow closely what is happening. Fans and lovers of detective stories and westerns will have fun.
2. Costumes and decorations - you look and feel immersed in the Wild West with your head. The scenery of the cities, the famous saloons, the houses and the wigwams of the Indians - everything is done as it should. The costumes are in no way inferior to the scenery.
3. Nature - and generally camera work. The picture was filmed, as before, in Yugoslavia, where the nature is very similar to the North American one. Prairies, mountains, forests, rivers - everything looks great on the big screen even now, in our difficult twenty-first century, in the alarming year two thousand and twenty.
4. Prejudices - it is perfectly shown that despite the reservations and conscientious partnership with the pale-faced, the latter still despise the Indians, do not consider them to be people. Of course, not all, but the overwhelming majority. So it was, so it is now in modern America, and so it will continue.
5. Music - quite good for itself, corresponding to the atmosphere and tone of the picture itself. Nothing memorable, unfortunately, but it sounds good in the picture.
6. Chases, shootings - there are quite a few of them here, because it is mostly a detective story, but those that are filmed perfectly. Staging at a high level.
A little about the main characters:
1. Chris Howard, played by Armin Müller-Stahl, is a mysterious stranger who has arrived in a small wild-western town, where he becomes a deputy sheriff and tries to find criminals who use prejudices about the Indians to their advantage (did you think that this would not happen? Naive!) ... An excellent shooter and a reasonable person who treats Indians with sympathy. Armin is truly the main character here, who acts decisively but intelligently, which is very good in those conditions. I can only praise the actor! Bravo!
2. Black Leopard performed by Goiko Mitic - one of the leaders of the Shoshone tribe, who is looking for the killers of other leaders, during which he meets Chris Howard. Their joint action should help bring justice. Goiko performs all the tricks again and plays well. Bravo Goiko! Well, he also speaks excellent German (thanks to the version of the picture, where there were original inserts)
3. Mike Ellison performed by Hoppe Rolf is a wealthy businessman and owner of an oil company that extracts this very oil on the lands of the Indians. A crook, a bigwig and generally an unpleasant person, from whom you must expect trouble. It should be said that Hoppe is excellent at the role of scoundrels and scoundrels. Bravo!
Well, of course, today all the chases and skirmishes present in this western are no longer able to evoke those emotions in the viewer that in the year of release, but we will make a discount on the release time. It will be fair.
Well, next time Goiko Mitich will have a war with the pale-faced, who are driving the Seminole tribe from their native lands. It will be in the picture "Osceola".
As a result, we have a good western, which is more of a detective story, with a great Goyko Mitic, a good and tense script, great atmosphere, sets and costumes, and unforgettable acting work.
