Western, adventure. A screen adaptation of the novel "St. John's Wort" by the famous American writer James Fenimore Cooper. I have not read the book, to my shame. I repent, I am a sinner, but you have to be honest. I continue to talk about the films of the East German film studio DEFA with the participation of "Honored Indian of the Soviet Union" Goiko Mitic. Since I cannot say for the book, I will consider the film adaptation as an independent work, following the spirit of the book's primary source. I kept remembering whether I looked at this picture or not, but when I saw the face of the main villain I remembered that I had definitely seen it all before. The turn of the second picture of twelve has come, and here is my brief opinion - Magnificent Gojko Mitic: part two. I want to state right away that the picture has no shortcomings, there are some small comments, which I will highlight in a separate paragraph. And therefore, allow your humble servant to focus your attention on the expressive merits of this western.
So, here they are:
1. Adventure story - the picture tells the story of two brothers in spirit: the pale-faced hunter nicknamed "St. John's wort" and the red-skinned warrior Chingachgook - the Big Snake, the last of them was stolen by the hostile Indian tribe Huron, and therefore Chingachgook intends to return her, not without the help of St. John's wort , but big politics intervenes here. The British support the Delaware tribe, where Chingachgook is from, and the Hurons are supported by the French. The colonists deliberately push the Indians with their foreheads, so as not to "get their hands dirty". Colonists only need territory, and preferably no Indians. But the historical background here serves only for the sake of the most intense and adventurous story. Here you will find intrigues, and the tensions between the pale-faced and the red-skinned, whom the former consider "lower than animals," prejudices, ancient grievances and ghosts of the past that hinder the unification of the Indians in their struggle against the colonists, and so on. The romantic line was not forgotten, although it does not play a primary role here. Fights, chases, shootings - yes to health. Get your signature! The final turned out to be a bit sad, but not devoid of hope.
2. Atmosphere - North America, the English and French crowns are fighting for the continent in order to snatch more pieces from each other, attracting the Indians and skillfully using their disunity and the abundance of old grievances. The viewer feels all this, and it works even today, in our twenty-first century.
3. Costumes, scenery - the picture was again filmed in Yugoslavia, where the nature is very similar to North American. The scenery, unlike the previous picture, has become much more, and this only plays into the hands of the picture, there are more extras, albeit not very much, and the costumes are very authentic, for which I can only praise the creators.
4. Fights, chases, skirmishes - and although there is no final battle per se, this does not make the picture worse. All of these scenes are dynamic, although shown using cropped montage, but exciting.
5. Music - this time the composer did a great job, all the melodies sound to the place and to the time, and complement the atmosphere and emphasize each specific scene so that the viewer does not miss anything. It would be possible to add music to the Indian tune, it would be even more authentic, but this is already my nitpick, or Wishlist.
A little about the main characters:
1. Chingachgook - Big Snake performed by Goyko Mitich - a warrior of the Delaware tribe, a "noble savage" intending to return the kidnapped bride, which becomes the beginning of a whole series of adventures. Honest, loyal to his tribe and behaves like a "red-skinned knight in shining armor." Goiko Mitic himself performed all the tricks in this film (as in all the others, being a stuntman by profession), for which he received respect and respect from me personally, and the acting itself is at a high level. Bravo!
2. Tom Hutter performed by Helmut Schreiber is an old hunter who built a house on the shores of a wonderful lake. He despises the Indians, is full of prejudices of his time, loves his only daughter. The ending of this character was obvious, and deserved, but Helmut played him perfectly. Well done!
Of course, now these combined shots, the absence of blood and pressing to the wound site look well, completely unconvincing, and involuntarily resemble a comedy (by the way, there are a few jokes in the film), but let's make a discount on the release time of the picture, okay? Just tell everyone about it, it won't be just our little secret!
And yet, the picture shows the wonderful nature and the operator clearly tried for us, catching the best shots.
Well, next time Goyko Michich will confront greedy gold diggers trying to squeeze the Dakota tribe out of their native land in the film "Trail of the Falcon".
As a result, we have a good western, and even an adaptation of the cult adventure novel by Fenimore Cooper with the magnificent Goyko Mitic with an excellent story, excellent entourage, good music
performed by wonderful and talented actors.