The Scout (1983)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The scout |
| Country of production | GDR , Mongolia |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1983 |
| length | 100 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director |
Konrad Petzold Jamiangiin Buntar |
| script | Gottfried Kolditz |
| music | Karl-Ernst Sasse |
| camera |
Otto Hanisch , Geserdschawiin Masch |
| cut | Brigitte Krex |
| occupation | |
| |
The Scout is an Indian film by director Konrad Petzold produced by the DEFA Studio for Feature Films, Artistic Working Group (KAG) “Johannisthal”, in collaboration with Mongolkino Ulan-Bator .
This flick is the last part of an extremely successful western series with Gojko Mitić as the main actor. The shooting in Mongolia with 1,200 horses lasted three months. The film was premiered on May 27, 1983 in the Dresden film theater Prager Straße on the occasion of the opening of the "Cinema Summer '83".
action
North America 1877. After the white military exterminated a number of Indian peoples or drove them into the reservations , they turned to the areas west of the Rocky Mountains , where the peaceful tribe of the Nez Percé Indians is based. A cavalry division under Colonel William Howard steals a sizeable herd of horses from the Indian tribe in order to prevent them from escaping and thus later being driven into the reservation more easily. Unlike the neighboring warlike tribe of the Cayuse , who oppose the superior armed forces by force of arms, the Nez Percé, led by their chief, decide to bring their flock back without using force, in order to later relocate to Canada.
When the US Army and the nine hundred requisitioned horses take a rest, they are provoked by Cayuse Indians. Colonel Howard uses this opportunity for an insidious attack and takes up the pursuit of the fugitive Indians. Howard literally overrun a Cayuse settlement with his people, killing the residents and reducing everything to rubble. Meanwhile, he leaves Major Bannigan and six other soldiers with the herd alone. The few men have a lot of trouble controlling the huge herd and decide to drive them to Fort Lapwei.
Subchief “White Feather” makes this situation his own, disguises himself as a harmless, woman-seeking fisherman and lets himself be captured by the young soldier Hunter. His plan initially worked, and he was hired by the whites as a local scout . Together with the remaining soldiers, he drives the herd away, but soon separates from them to inform a nearby Cayuse settlement of the upcoming Howard attack. But he's too late. Almost all women and children fell victim to the murderous mob, only one young injured Cayuse woman survived, who the scout takes to "his" small cavalry force.
When he arrives again, he earns distrust, but since his services are necessary for the whites, he and his squaw are initially allowed to do their thing . Sergeant Anderson soon sees through White Feather, however, and reveals him as a subchief of the Nez Percé. In the further course of the action, there are repeated inconsistencies among the horse guards, which end at the latest with Major Bannigan's accidental death; then one is again dependent on the knowledge of the scout. This ultimately leads you to the remains of Fort Lapwai, which was destroyed and burned down by the Cayuse. In the ruins he meets Colonel William Howard, who with some soldiers is able to withstand constant attacks by the Indians.
In this situation, however, White Feather has to take up arms to defend himself against the Supreme Commander. He kills Colonel Howard while his men face another attack by the Indians; by now they are largely disaffected and deserting in droves. Anyone who does not flee dies in the fort, including Sergeant Anderson. At the end of the film, White Feather says goodbye to his squaw, wrests the herd from its enemies and leads them back to his tribe all alone.
Reviews
“[…] Is rich in external and internal tensions, in actions of the most varied kinds, in entanglements, in rivalries between those involved, even in small inconsistencies told, played and filmed - just an Indian film, as so often done, seriously designed, dignified, exciting and entertaining. Clean in the matter, solid in the execution. "
“His 'Scout' turns out to be a Gojko film that certainly has an audience appeal, but it undoubtedly got too much water from the big river crossing. Everywhere it is a bit watery, characterized by routine mediocrity, once again the real dramatic breath is missing. It crackles a couple of times when Klaus Manchen has his scenes ... "
“Solidly developed action-packed Indian film, which, in addition to great landscape shots and impressive dressage performances, also comes up with very good acting performances. The film, which takes sides for the Indians, was produced in cooperation with Mongolia. "
Web links
- The scout in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The scout at filmportal.de
- The scout at the DEFA Foundation
Individual evidence
- ↑ cf. The scout. In: filmportal.de . Deutsches Filminstitut , accessed on September 16, 2016 .
- ↑ cf. [1] ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ The Scout. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
