Dir: Harald Reinl
Star: Pierre Brice, Lex Barker, Karin Dor, Klaus Kinski
a.k.a. Winnetou – 2. Teil

From a modern perspective, I guess this is a fairly sympathetic portrayal of Native Americans, who are portrayed as being largely peaceful, and only reacting when betrayed by the white men. Of course, this German Western (Wurstern?) kinda blows it, by having the main such parts played by a French actor and a German actress. But, hey: most of the Americans aren’t played by Americans either, being the usual continental breakfast buffet of Germans and Italians. Not the least of the latter being an early appearance from Mario Girotti as Lt. Robert Merrill – the actor better known as Terence Hill from the Trinity movies. So, I guess it’s at least equal opportunity Eurowashing here.

Qualms about such things aside, this is not a bad film, with a good storyline and strong characters. Despite the alternate title suggesting otherwise, it’s actually the fourth of the movies based on the Winnetou character, created in the late 19th century by German author Karl May. The first came out in 1962, with ten following between them and 1968, all starring Brice as the noble Indian, and mostly with Barker as his (originally German in the books, though considerably more vague here) friend, Old Shatterhand. Here, Winnetou is crossing the West, trying to keep the piece between the natives and the waves of settlers encroaching on their land, preaching peace and negotiation over retaliatory violence.

The problem is, not everyone wants that. In particular, there’s oil baron Bud Forrester (Anthony Steel, an actual English speaker – though still British rather than American), who is intent on fomenting war, with the goal of getting the Indians wiped out or moved elsewhere, so he can claim the land and the resources under it. To that end, he is staging attacks on both sides, and making it look like the other is responsible. This includes making sidekick David ‘Luke’ Lucas (Kinski) pretend to be the sole survivor of an attack on a caravan of settlers, actually wiped out by Forrester’s men. Meanwhile, the good guys are trying to build an alliance, not least by Lt. Merrill marrying Ribanna (Dor), the daughter of a local chief.

Which is a bit of a double-edged tomahawk, since Winnetou has also fallen for her. They first meet when he saves Ribanna from a bear attack – though this is hardly The Revenant, being deep in obvious “man in a suit” territory. Ribanna turns out to be a bit of a warrior princess, good with a bow and arrow, because her father did not have any sons. Despite this bright start – particularly for the time – she seems increasingly and infuriatingly passive as the film proceeds. After she lets herself be married off to an Army officer for the sake of diplomacy, the Indian loses all self-agenda, and ends up being a damsel in distress, rescued from the cave system where she and the other women and children are hiding, after Forrester takes them and Merrill hostage. [Of note: Dor was married to the director at this point, the first of her three husbands]

That final confrontation was apparently shot in the Postojna cave system, one of the largest in what was then Yugoslavia (now Croatia). While I question quite how… well-lit these are, they certainly add value, and I have to say, the whole thing looks quite lovely. Not just the caves, but all the Croatian scenery is stunning, and a fitting stand-in for the West – even if the script’s grasp of Indian territories is more than a little wobbly! There’s also a grand sequence involving a large number of giant fireballs, where one of Forrester’s oil-wells is sabotaged and blown up: it’s reported that three thousand liters of fuel were used. All told, the quality here in terms of the overall production is palpable.

However, it’s a movie not without its flaws – and not just the bear suit, either. In particular, Eddi Arendt’s efforts to act as comic relief are neither welcome nor successful, his scholarly Lord Castlepool proving almost entirely useless. That applies both in terms of his character, and to the movie as a whole, because it distracts from what is a thoroughly serious topic. Really, it’s about genocide for the direct, economic benefit of the genociders, and is approached elsewhere in the film with the sober approach it deserves. This is particularly true at the end, which I’ll confess I found thoroughly satisfying – more on that in a moment.

It’s a relatively early Western in the Kinski filmography. But he has already found his niche as a black hatted villain, who thinks nothing of actively participating in the slaughter of an entire settlement, on the orders of Forrester. Lucas literally says at one point, after Merrill calls him out for his crimes, that the only good Indian is a dead Indian. [A line reputedly originated by Colonel Philip Sheridan in 1869] He then takes a back seat in the middle of the movie, focus moving on to Winnetou, before returning as a key component of the “false flag” attack on the settlers. Initially succeeding in convincing the military Indians are to blame, he is eventually exposed. Lucas escapes his captors in impressive style; somehow, managing to burn through ropes which are tying his hands behind his back!

He returns to Forrester (you have to admire that kind of loyalty in a henchman) and reveals the location of the cave where Ribanna and the other non-combatants are hiding out. This sets up the final face-off between Forrester and his men, against Winnetou and Shatterhand, who are trying to stall for time so the cavalry can get there. [To no-one’s great surprise, Forrester rejects their offer of a fair trial in a court of law] This ends in a gun-battle, Lucas being shot in the back as he tries to retreat into the cave, though it appears Forrester will escape, a convenient rope-ladder offering him an unexpected escape. To avoid spoilers, let’s just say “Not so fast…” As you’d perhaps expect from a film based on a series of books with a generally optimistic view of human nature, just deserts are served to those who who should have them.