Der Schuh des Manitu
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| Der Schuh des Manitu | |
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| Directed by | Michael Bully Herbig |
| Produced by | Michael Bully Herbig |
| Written by | Michael Bully Herbig |
| Starring | Michael Bully Herbig, Christian Tramitz |
| Music by | Ralf Wengenmayr |
| Editing by | Alexander Dittner |
| Distributed by | Constantin Film |
| Release date(s) | 2001 |
| Running time | 82 minutes (original edition), 88 minutes (extended edition) |
| Language | German |
| Budget | 4,500,000€ |
| IMDb profile | |
Der Schuh des Manitu (English: Manitou's Shoe) is a 2001 German comedy western film. Directed by Michael Bully Herbig, it is a film adaptation of the Manitou sketches from his Pro Sieben television show Bullyparade. It is one of the most successful German films ever.
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[edit] The Winnetou Novels
„Der Schuh des Manitu“ parodies a series of wild west adventure novels of the 19th century German author Karl May.
The topic of these novels is the deep friendship of a fictional Apache chief (Winnetou) and his Caucasian companion and blood-brother (Old Shatterhand), who are both exemplarily virtuous and stand together to keep the peace between Indians and immigrating White settlers. Der Schuh des Manitu spoofs the friendship motif in the Winnetou novels and in their 1960s film adaptations (Karl May movies) which has largely led to high, but sometimes idealised and cliché-ridden admiration of Native Americans in Germany.
After having saved the Apache’s life, Old Shatterhand becomes Winnetou’s blood-brother. Together they try to keep an unstable peace between Indians and settlers. Winnetou’s main objection against Caucasians is their "greed", meaning that they have to take all the land for themselves and cannot share with the natives. Winnetou’s opponent in the books is ruthless Santer (Santa Maria in the movie), who wants to buy all of the Indians’ land and finally shoots Winnetou for that reason.
In the books, Winnetou also falls in love with a "half-blooded" (half-Indian) girl named Apanatschi (compare the name Abahatchi in the movie). Many shots of the original Winnetou movies feature Old Shatterhand and Winnetou riding side by side, accompanied by romantic orchestral music.
[edit] Story
Abahachi (Michael Herbig) and his blood brother Ranger (Christian Tramitz) are an inseparable pair since Ranger saved Abahachi from a speeding train on an unguarded railroad crossing. After a lot of riding and adventuring together, they aim to buy a pub ("Stammlokal" = "regular bar", with a pun on "Stamm", meaning both "frequently used" and "tribe") for Abahachi's tribe, the Apaches, by borrowing money from Listiger Lurch ("Sly Lizard") of the Shoshone tribe. The whole deal is carried out through a real estate agent by the name of Santa Maria (Sky Dumont).
However, the deal falls through in spectacular fashion - the pub is found to be a mere cardboard cut-out, and Lurch's son, Falscher Hase ("False Hare"; German for Meatloaf) attempts to grab the money and run in panic. Santa Maria kills Hase, grabs the money and sets his henchmen on Abahachi and Ranger, who take refuge from the shooting behind the only remaining artifact of the "pub" - a saloon door. Suddenly, Santa Maria and his men are gone, and they are left with the body of Falscher Hase.
Abahachi and Ranger return to the Shoshones to explain what has happened. To their surprise, they are taken captive and tied to totem poles, and charged to be executed for the murder of Falscher Hase and the theft of the money. Santa Maria has arrived there before them, befriended the tribe, and conveyed his fabricated story to Listiger Lurch. He retires for the night, leaving his second-in-command, Hombre (who also serves as his personal ashtray), to watch the prisoners.
During the night, Ranger sees his chance to escape. He attempts to rouse the sleeping Abahachi, with no luck. In a final attempt, he kicks up a large stone, juggles it footballer style and kicks it in Abahachi's direction to wake him up. The plan succeeds, but the stone bounces off into the background, hitting the sleeping Hombre in the genitals and painfully waking him up.
In order to reimburse Sly Lizard's loss, Abahatchi remembers and plans to recover a secret treasure kept inside a large, shoe-shaped rock called Manitou's Shoe (a spoof of "Der Schatz im Silbersee"/"The treasure in the Silver Lake", another Winnetou novel and movie). However, there is a problem with the map which leads to the treasure: The location of Manitou's Shoe is shown on a map which Abahatchi inherited from his grandfather, and which he shared with his best friends in a drunken rout after his grandfather had died.
In frustration, Ranger puts his hands to his face - to discover that their bonds have already been cut. They decide to sneak off, but as they walk away, the totem to which Abahachi was bound falls over (it was not planted in the ground), killing a hapless bunny rabbit, the pet of Listiger Lurch. This causes the chief to hunt Apahachi for killing both hares (the 'false' one and the 'real' one). Moreover, Hombre has listened into the conversation and informed Santa Maria, who has decided to swipe the treasure for himself and thus enabled the blood-brothers' escape.
To recollect all pieces of the map, Abahatchi has to re-unite with his friends - his twin brother Winnetouch, and a Greek named Dimitri (Rick Kavanian). The fourth piece of the map is tattoed on the back of Abahatchi's former "hough school" flame Ursula (Uschi), once an "ugly duckling" kind of girl and now a beautiful saloon dancer.
Meanwhile, the Shoshones are going to war. But since their only hatchet has broken ("burying the hatchet"), they have decided to dig out the folding chair. Also, their lack of horses - Sly Lizard's only horse has shrunk down to pony size during washing - forces them first to hike on foot, later on a rail handcar (since they couldn't afford a locomotive).
Ranger is awkwardly stunned when he meets Abahatchi's twin Winnetouch, an Indian with an exaggeratedly gay attitude wearing an all-pink headdress and all-pink clothes living on the "Pink Face Powder Ranch" (original German: "Puder Rosa Ranch"), an all-pink parody of Ponderosa Ranch. Nevertheless, Winnetouch willingly hands over the map and agrees (after much affected arguing) to pose as a decoy, while Abahatchi and Ranger go looking for Dimitri and Uschi, respectively. During his decoy action Winnetouch is captured and left behind, guarded by Hombre, while Santa goes after Uschi. Unexpectantly, Winnetouch and Hombre begin a close relationship during their wait.
Abahatchi and Ranger both find their respective targets, but Ranger and Uschi - who subsequently fall in love - are captured by Santa, and later Abahatchi is added to the list. Abahatchi, Winnetouch and Ranger are left in the Puder Rosa Ranch, which is torched by the villains, but with the help of Dimitri they manage to escape. Uschi is taken along by Santa, who has taken a fancy on her.
Santa and his men arrive first at Manitou's Shoe. Santa enters the rock with two men (whom he later shoots when they rebel); the rest are left outside with Uschi. Abahatchi and his friends arrive some time later, and while Dimitri, posing as a 'foreign exchange bandit', acts as a decoy, the others free Uschi and sneak into the rock; Hombre, happily reunited with Winnetouch, joins them. Due to a series of mishappenings, the group splits up; Winnetouch falls through a secret door, and Abahatchi and Ranger start an argument about each other's faults, blood-brothering, and their affections for Uschi.
Abahatchi separates from the others and is cornered by Santa, who shoots him. (The subsequent flashback scenes of Apahachi's life are a spoof on the novel/movie "Winnetou III", in which Winnetou is killed in battle.) But surprisingly, Abahatchi survives; the bullet has hit a Lebkuchenherz (ginger bread heart) which Apahachi was wearing under his shirt. The heroes are happily reunited and start an impromptu "Lebkuchenherz" dance.
In the meantime, Santa has retrieved the treasure, a golden necklace with a giant blue diamond. Cornered by the heroes, he is dumped into a mud trap by Winnetouch (who has managed to find his way out) and sinks to his death. But just as the friends start celebrating, Winnetouch triggers another trap, and they all find themselves in a parody of the 'roller coaster' ride from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. They break out of Manitou's shoe and right into Santa's henchmen; but the Shoshones also arrive at the scene, and a firefight breaks out which the heroes and Indians win. However, during the ride Winnetouch has lost the necklace, starting the problems all over again, but Hombre returns the gold to Listiger Lurch and testifies in Abahatchi's favor.
The movie ends with all good characters celebrating. Dimitri gets his heart's wish - to become a real Indian - fulfilled, and his tavern becomes the new pub for Abahatchi's tribe; Listiger Lurch gets a new hare - a shockingly pink costume - from Winnetouch; Hombre patents the barbeque ashtray; and Uschi is pregnant by Ranger. But on Uschi's urging, Ranger sets off with Abahatchi, riding into the sunset for new adventures.
[edit] Trivia
- Karl May has a sort-of cameo in the movie, as an alcoholic author who is looking for inspirations.
- When the movie was presented, actor Pierre Brice, who had played Winnetou in the original Karl May movies (and who also has a cameo in an old photograph of Abahatchi's and Winnetouch's father), did not think that this parody was funny. A dispute resulted between Brice and Herbig, which was settled only recently.
- Michael Herbig actually plays three roles here: Abahatchi, his twin brother Winnetouch, and their grandfather, Grauer Star (either "Grey Star" or "Cataract"). The later - an Indian version of the King - appears only in the Extra-Large (extended) version.
- In the extended version, Abahatchi's grandfather, Grauer Star, had died because he had spontaneously invented stage diving - "but the audience had not been ready for it yet" - and plunged face-first into the groud. Incidentally, there has been a similar accident; On July 20,2005, singer Patrick Sherry of the rock band Bad Beat Revue died after he had attempted to make a dive for a lighting rig and failed to grasp it, suffering severe head and back injuries in the process.
- When Santa enters Manitou's Shoe, two of his men call to him, demanding of him to bring them something. In the original German version, they spoof a commercial of Ferrero's "Kinderüberraschung" ("Kinder Surprise"). The original wording is: "We want something exciting! And something to play with!" "And chocolate!"
- The name of the character Uschi may have been inspired by the German actress Uschi Glas, who performed Apanatschi in the movie Winnetou und das Halbblut Apanatschi ("Winnetou and the Half-Blood Apanatschi").
