Horst in Translation ([email protected]) I will not deny that I have been fairly critical with GDR movies for quite a while, especially these black-and-white film that are considerably older than this one here. I do not agree with the general acclaim and I believe that some of them are pretty badly written and deliver little in terms of memorable values referring to political content or character elaborations and relationships. But I do believe that "Apachen", an east German film from almost 45 years ago succeeds with basically everything it attempts. The characters are okay, the action scenes aren't bad for German standards, sometimes even fun to watch. And most of all, this film has some nice shades. My huge problem with the Winnetou film(s) is that the characters are either 100% bad or 100% good, but this is not the case here. This makes them seem a lot more realistic and also unlike the Winnetou films, this movie here has Indians who offer more than being perfect in every regard and babbling pretentious quotes from start to finish. The plot was solid, could have been better, could have been worse. As a whole, I recommend this Gojko Mitic (quite a star back then, appeared in many more films) movie to everybody who likes westerns about cowboys and Indians. It is certainly very different compared to what America did in terms of western films around that time, but it is just a different kind of good. Thumbs up and there is a sequel too if you liked this one.

berberian00-276-69085 So, I decided to write few lines for the IMDb review service again. I reckoned not to write lately at all because of my sight failure (age connected, I presume) but anyway let's proceed.Who is Gojko Mitic and is there such thing as "Macho Legacy" coming from the Balkans (for those who lack geographical orientation this is part of Eastern Europe, running from the Alps to the Bosphorus with Istanbul and sometimes historically was first time called Europe). Gojko Mitic comes from a small town in Eastern Serbia near the Bulgarian border. He has the looks of a typical Shopi from the region. Other famous figures from the region are nowadays Bulgarian Premier Bojko Borisov, etc.Hell, I forgot my point. Mitic's films, as a rule made by resemblance with spaghetti western, were shot in the mid-1960s to mid-1970s and after that he lost significance as Movie Star (for reasons I am not well aware). But in this 15 years period he was really something on the Big Screen, while I remember the full saloons from that time and it was always difficult to get tickets for his movies. In Eastern Europe Gojko Mitic was an action star with caliber and popularity of the great French actors of the adventure cinema such as Alain Delon, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Marais, Lino Ventura, etc.The westerns themselves were produced by Deutsche Film (DEFA) of Eastern Germany and shot respectively at different locations in Eastern Europe but mainly in former Yugoslavia (not as someone mentioned in far eastern Uzbekistan). Gojko Mitic get noticed in some small appearances at the Winnetou franchise series and then was offered the leading role in the DEFA westerns. Whomever it concerns and because I am staunch physiognomy reader, here in Apachen (1973) and its sequel Ulzana (1974) the tandem Gojko Mitic and Colea Rautu (Romanian actor playing an aging whiskey drinking Indian) look much alike another odd couple from a most remembered Hollywood movie - i.e., Rocky (1976) with Sylvester Stallone and Burgess Meredith (an aging boxing trainer). So be it!Lastly, there was a very popular song in Bulgaria from the 1990s about Gojko Mitic with trailer from his movies. Enjoy your time!

Blaise_B East German western from 1973 with a revenge plot involving the massacre of Apache by white mercenaries in the employ of both the US and Mexican governments in which the heroes are Apache. Well directed and beautifully shot, apparently in Romania and Uzbekistan, and the eighth of twelve westerns from the point of view of various tribes starring, and in this case co-written by, Gojko Mitic, who was a star in Eastern Europe because of these films.APACHES was made in a communist country during the cold war and it's easy to see what the angle may have been, how the "white eyes" villains could represent capitalism, especially during a scene in which the Apache steal the water and horses from a band of travelers, leaving them stranded in the desert, then sit back and watch as they kill each other off. They are self-centered and greedy, thus unable to cooperate long enough to survive a bad situation. The indigenous tribes, known for boundless generosity to those not their enemies, not having a concept of private property, could easily fit the socialist ideal. Not the reality, mind you, but the ideal.What's really funny, though, is that this movie, by the standards of what we know today, really doesn't play like propaganda. It feels much more authentic than any Spaghetti Western I've seen on the subject--NAVAJO JOE immediately comes to mind--and at times even plays like "Blood Meridian" from the point of view of the Indians. It was supposedly based on research of a real-life massacre that occurred at the beginning of the Mexican-American war.The costumes and production design are great and the action scenes are great and despite all my prattling about sociopolitical context, it's an entertaining western, which I'm sure is what it was intended to be. The villain looks a lot like the Italian actor Piero Lulli, smokes a giant cigar, and uses a whip. The music sometimes reminds me of Spaghetti Westerns, especially Stelvio Cipriani's score for THE UGLY ONES, but ultimately has a style all its own.The First Run DVD has a ten-minute trailer featuring scenes from this and other East German westerns that ends by announcing, "All this material will be restaurated soon." I'm definitely anxious to find out how soon.

John Seal Late to the cultural ball as usual, the East German film industry took note of the 'political spaghetti western' trend of late '60s Italian cinema and tried to shoehorn their own brand of anti-imperialist Marxism-Leninism into the genre. The results are mixed. Crudely directed by Gottfried Kolditz, the film tells the story of Ulzana (sauerkraut western veteran Gojko Mitic), an Apache chief who has reached a rapprochement with the local Mexican population and generously extends it to whites who travel through the territory. His people have become inured to the treacherous ways of the white man, however, and are now reliant on them for booze, 'relief flour' and beef steak. They also haven't counted on the mendacity and greed of 'Amerikanishe gangsters' such as Mr. Johnson (Milan Beli), who could care less about treaties or gentleman's agreements and simply wants to get his capitalist mitts on the local copper deposits. Though the film is not particularly well made, it is well acted, and the story is a disturbingly accurate rendering of the lengths to which we have gone to steal the land and birthright of indigenous peoples across the world. Whether in the rain forests of Central and South America, the jungles of Irian Jaya, or the Old West, we've done a tip-top job of raping the earth and killing those who get in the way of 'progress'. Alas, Apachen also relies on some of the laziest stereotypes of the noble savage, sapping much of its potential as an educational tool and rendering it barely a step or two ahead of an Old Shatterhand picture. Recently deceased Polish actor Leon Niemcyzk (here looking a lot thinner and gaunter than in Knife in the Water) pops up as a Mexican miner, and there's a decent if derivative score from Hans-Dieter Hosalla. On balance, it's a fascinating take on the genre and will entertain anyone with a penchant for Eurowesterns. While it's politically astute, however, the need to toe an ideological line leaves it, in some regards, counter-intuitively less radical than some of the angry films of Sollima and Parolini--films produced in the belly of the capitalist beast.