Yahsi Bati - The Ottoman Cowboys

Having to wait until this feature came out on DVD was no disappointment, just be prepared to read subtitles - which is OK with me.

Being quite familiar with some of the idiosyncrasies of Turkish life from a foreigners view, I had a blast watching this collaborative production mix some of the finer points of the old west with the comedic lifestyle of a few Ottoman Turks making their first diplomatic trek to the Wild West.

As always, I enjoy the humor of Cem Yilmaz, but in order to really enjoy this film, one has to be quite familiar with the 'finer points' of living amongst our Turkish brethren – it's the little things that mean a lot.

'Chuck!' You know what I mean...

Since Cem Yilmaz's movies are becoming worse and worse every time (i.e. A.R.O.G), my expectations were really low on this movie. On some of the aspects, these were met. For starters, the screenplay is really dull, based on all the Turkish cliché jokes about Wild West. The jokes are not funny at all and the level of them are too low. And as in most of the movies of Cem Yilmaz, the scenario is not coherent, it's like jokes about Wild West in a stand-up comedy, which have been cast in a movie and glued together. The worst thing is that there is an inconsistency in the movie; it's supposed to be Ottoman Turks in Wild West but all the lead characters (including the Americans) are acting as if they are Turkish such as the Sheriff of Cannonball and his family. Still, the art directors has done a high toned job - they must have had worked a lot on the storyboard, there are real nice scenes through the movie - I have to say the costumes are quite good, too. In conclusion, it turns out to be a movie not to waste time on, maybe to be watched on a Sunday afternoon on TV while doing some other stuff.

After watching this movie, you will find very hard to get rid of the image of two Ottomans in the Wild West- image that implants itself into your mind for a numerous of days after consuming the product. But despite all efforts, this movie (that was designed to be a hilarious comedy) does not live up to expectations. The main slow down and confusion is resulted by a strange and naive holes in the script during it's middle part. Almost useless scenes in the church that have no motive, intro or outro, confusing turn-overs (the sheriff is talking friendly to the lead guy in one of the scenes, the lead guy exits the scene, 10 seconds later the message-boy approaches the lead guy to tell him that the sheriff is challenging him to a death-match duel)makes you think that you missed the whole sequence in the middle. Turn-overs in the script, mainly designed just to produce the thin motive for the next (hopefully) comic scene are not very seldom. But the comic outcome IS seldom. Maybe the source of real trouble in this Sorak- Yılmaz collaboration is the gap between language-based, sitcom jokes (that are a mother- ground for Yilmaz comedy-style) and Sorak's effort to tell the story more cinematic,picture-wise. Final product is trapped somewhere in the middle - sitcom diluted with something supposed-to-be a serious cinema. Usage of more than one camera on some scenes sometimes result with a series of lined shots that have no readable sign - shots that are used just as a bridge to squeeze timing and jump over the long gaps in the scene. They look more like a "don't mind this" inserts, rather than a planned shots. Anyway, visually film looks good, story-wise looks bad, comedy-wise looks decent enough, but not hilarious - as one could expect from a master comedian Cem Yımaz definitely is.

The movie is really funny and has original jokes about Turkish - American culture combination ;)

Spending large amounts of money is not enough for a good movie. But in a country like Turkey where capital is really rare Cem Yilmaz was lucky. He is a great comedian, and has proved himself as a great entertainer. Thus it was not difficult for him to secure the investment for this big project. That's why we were filled with expectations more than the usual. At the end it was a big disappointment; the script was not strong. The story was weak and so were the jokes. I am sure the next movie of Cem Yilmaz will be full of lessons learned from this movie. We, the Turkish audience, are expecting the next big hit from him. Our expectations are justified when we think about his talent.