Reviews

I don't understand these negative reviews. No doubts, "Winnetou and Firehand" isn't very great masterpiece like Sergio Leone's "Once upon time in the West", but it's interesting, dynamic action with very effective battle scenes, with splendid soundtrack by Peter Thomas - one of the greatest music in movies about native Americans '(like Trevor Jone's - "The Last of the mohicans", 1992, and Martin Bottcher's - other Winnetou films). Alfred's Vohrer's direction is energetic. photographs of Croatian landscape is impressive. The cast is professional, characters are well characterized. Especially I like beautiful, romantic brother and sister - Pierre's Brice's Winnetou and Marie Versini's Nscho-tschi, Nadia Gray as Michelle (convincing drama of lonely woman), Harald Leipnitz as fanatic avenger Silers, Aleksander Gavric as Derks. The humor and seriousness are well balanced in this film. It's pleasant to see it. To my mind, one of the best movies about Winnetou.

To my mind, it's one of greatest movies in this century. It's about man's tragedy in personal life and death of his country. He asks again and again in the first scene of this film: how this happened? The answer is: each of us influence history (as I understand this) - our actions, even thoughts and desires, Main hero (Poruchik - Martinsh Kalita) is indifferent about all except his individual desire. He can't make the right choice in his love and he can't come round until the moment of his death. It's too late for him, too late for his homeland. Bt film isn't didactic, this movie has exceptional artistic values. Director Nikita Mikhalkov knows enormous number of sophisticated nuances of human soul as professional secrets of cinema. The artistic result is outstanding. The cast is very successful, music is very touching, photography is splendid. Mikhalkov's enemies tries to denigrate him very hard. But it's method of communists and fascists - to assess art in politic terms. Everybody has rights to reject political views of Mikhalkov. But reject the great art of politic isn't democracy, it's totalitarianism. "Sunstroke" contains nothing denying human rights, humanism, etc.