Horst in Translation ([email protected]) "Osceola" is an East German film from 1971 and if you hear this and the somewhat exotic title, you probably already guess correctly that this is another GDR Indian movie starring the Eastern Winnetou Gojko Mitic. It plays in the first half of the 19th century, definitely an interesting era, but it also becomes obvious here once again that the script and story were just not good enough to come up with a convincing film overall. This hurts especially as this is not a short film at all, is closer to two hours than to 90 minutes. It's not really Mitic's fault. He does not shine particularly, but you can excuse that with the fact that the material he is given by the writer duo here is really generic and uninteresting for the most part. Costumes and landscapes are fine to watch, but this also results in this 45-year-old film being a case of style over substance. It needed major improvement in more than one area in order to turn out a success. This is especially disappointing as two writers (like I already said) and also two director worked on it here. And maybe also the best days of German western films were already over by the early 1970s. Anyway, I give it a thumbs-down. Watch something else instead.

unbrokenmetal "Osceola" takes us to Florida 1835 when the white farmers want complete control of the land, so sending the Seminole Indians to a reservation far away is planned - which leads to warfare. Chief Osceola (Gojko Mitic) unintentionally reminds me of Tarzan a lot: his main job is to rescue anybody in trouble, for example from a crocodile when crossing the river. The political tasks are mostly for Moore (Iurie Darie), a farmer who looks into the future when machines will be used instead of slave labor. His rich rival Raynes (Horst Schulze) is presented as a merciless racist capitalist who treats the black slaves badly and the Indians worse, whereas Moore even married an Indian girl - an obvious chunk of ideology you have to expect in a production from behind the iron curtain. This movie was shot in Cuba by an East German team (who had few other communist countries with palm trees to choose from, I guess). Director Petzold had also directed Mitic' two previous westerns "Tödlicher Irrtum" and "Weisse Wölfe". "Osceola" is a bit slow sometimes, too much singing and talking in between the action sequences, but it is interesting for its historical background, rather different from the usual Prairie Indians. Somebody gets a credit for "scientific advice" in the titles to point out is was well researched...