Last of the Renegades

Apache chief Pierre Brice saves Assiniboine princess Karin Dor from a guy in a bear suit. He takes her back to her village and discovers that the Assiniboines have captured cavalry officer Terence Hill and two of his men. Brice has a plan to meet with colonel Renato Baldini and make peace, so he convinces Assiniboine chief Rikard Brzeska to let Hill go with a message for the colonel, who happens to be his father. Brice and all the chiefs will come to the fort and they'll all talk peace.

On the way home, Hill sees a brutal attack on a native village by a group of men lead by Klaus Kinski. He fights them off with the help of Lex Barker, who was conveniently passing by and also happens to be pals with Brice. Kinski is working for Anthony Steel, an oil baron who wants no peace because he can use conflict with the natives as an excuse to steal their land.

Baldini and the native chiefs reach a peace agreement, mostly because Hill agrees to marry Dor (who's in love with Brice, but both of them agree to take one for the team). Steel attacks a group of settlers and blames it on the natives. It's up to Barker, Brice, Hill and comedic sidekick Eddi Arent (who I didn't mention previously because he annoys me) to stop Kinski and Steel and save the day.

One of a series of West German westerns based on the books of Karl May that have Native American heroes even though they are all played by white Europeans. This is fairly typical Euro-genre fare, not all that coherent in the plot department, but a hell of a lot of fun. It's pretty much worth seeing just to see Barker, Hill and Kinski together, but it's also just chock full of great little action set pieces.

"Winnetou 2" is the lucky one of the Winnetou trilogy, because in between the tragic events of part 1 and 3, none of the central characters needs to die. So it's a somewhat easier going show with a lot of great actors: a very young Terence Hill (then still Mario Girotti), Klaus Kinski, and notably Karin Dor ("The Green Archer", "You Only Live Twice") as Ribanna who falls in love with Winnetou but is expected to marry Lt.Merril for the sake of peace. Very impressive are the scene with countless extras (i.e. the meeting of the Indian chieftains) and in the cave when Winnetou comes to the rescue of Ribanna - and Merril whom he doesn't bear a grudge, that's noble Apaches for you. Director Reinl would take Lex Barker and Karin Dor into an even scarier place later with "Castle of the Walking Dead" ("Die Schlangengrube und das Pendel"). To sum it up: "Winnetou 2" was a good sequel that disappointed none of the audience, therefore part 3 was immediately on the schedule.

There are many films surrounding Winnetou (and Old Shatterhand), but this is th second movie of a trilogy that I rewatched after many years. And the movies hold up more than well. In this case it also has to do with the casting. Apart from the original actors in the respective roles, we get Klaus Kinski and Terence Hill ... a great addition - and another evil white man, who replaces Mario Adorf from the first one.

There may be certain things that age the movie, but the performances and the jokes (not all pc friendly I reckon but with the heart in the right place) really elevate this above other movies from that time frame. Having a native American front and center and being a good guy with morals, be friends with a white guy ... well that is a nice thing. While the cast is international, there is no real original audio track ... like the italo western, everyone was talking in their own language and later dubbed. But still you have mainly a german acting group here and a lot of voices I personally recognize from my childhood.

Great message overall - something that was not as front and center in American movies at that time as it should have been.

This one is regarded as one of the best "Karl-May-Movies" and is my personal favorite too. Lex Barker and Pierre Brice as the famous friends Winnetou and Old Shatterhand - as dignified as always. Supported by young Terence Hill in an early important part and the best cast ever seen in a May-Movie: Klaus Kinski, Anthony Steel, Karin Dor and the gorgeous yugoslavian actors Mirko Boman and Gojko Mitic. There is an emotional and thrilling story about Winnetou and his love Ribanna. Director Reinl - husband of Ribanna-performer Karin Dor - did an excellent job: There are great shootings of the landscape and the romantic May-feeling is stronger than ever before or after this little masterpiece.

This is an epic western-adventure-movie. It is highly entertaining and has in fact the potential of being a lot better than it is. Dances with Wolves reminds me a lot of this movie. And with a better script and stronger directing Winnetou II could have been a timeless piece of art like the Costner movie. The yugoslavian landscape seems a bit out of place sometimes, but the movie has a lot of the "Karl May - feeling".