"Winnetous Weiber" (pointless title, only picked because of the first letter that both have in common) or "Winnetou's Women" is a German television film from 2014. Actually this aired for the first time during the Christmas season 2014, so it is over five years old now, maybe more depending on when you read this review. "Weiber", by the way, is a less nicer word than "women", although "Weiber" also includes to a certain degree that the characters are women that have been through something and mastered challenger you could say. The best example is the word "Superweib". Anyway, this shall be enough language lesson for today and I think it is not even really necessary because those who come here and consider watching this film perhaps should be able to understand German because I very much doubt this is dubbed in other languages and there are probably also not subtitles available anywhere, at least no official subtitles. In contrast to the film's title, the two people mostly in charge of this film behind the camera are both male. However, if you take a look at the many other works from Dirk Regel and Timo Berndt, then you know immediately what quality you can expect here. Or what lack of quality I should say. The outcome is really weak. This is the story of a group of women who take part on a really long tour in order to see locations from the Karl May movies starring Pierre Brice (and Lex Barker). So there is a definite western component to this film. We know that right away at the start when we hear a most famous tune from Sergio Leone films. This tune is used a lot in modern movies and perhaps the inclusion in here is the worst from the many many times that filmmakers used it. You can see with Tarantino for example how it can be used wisely and with creative power and here it is the exact opposite. Then again Q worked with Morricone himself. Anyway, let's not drift away now. The cast includes a handful of actresses that German film buffs have certainly come across on other projects. Kroymann is always easy to recognize, Daniel probably as well, Kronjäger to some extent too I suppose. Maybe even Teresa Weißbach for the biggest film buffs. Josephin Busch not I guess, she may be too young, but she is the most beautiful cast member, which is a bit of a given too looking at her age. So this is clearly a film supposed to empower women. Sadly this idea and premise is already enough for some to say it is indeed a film that empowers women. The opposite is true if you are unbiased. Only a film that includes quality writing and creativity can empower women. This movie here fails from every perspective when it comes to that. And what is even worse: You could almost say it is against men. Take one of the first lines this one gives us. It says something "several women, several horses and one cowboy". Said cowboy is included at the end there, so he is basically less significant than the horses. Women must love it. How charming. At least those who like horses. And things do not get any better. Said cowboy has zero impact on the story. He is just there to drool over one of the characters and finally to be shot in the leg (this whole incident was a complete joke honestly from a perspective of realism, what the hell?) and even there one woman says something like he should man up. Unreal stuff. This isn't all already. There are other men included eventually and those behave in an inappropriate way towards the women at the center of the story. Of course, these men are German. It would be really racist if they were foreigners right? Oh my. And there is one male character who is deceased already at the beginning of the film and we only find out about him through narration and that one also had an affair with his wife's assistant. Lovely. I have no words for the fact that this screenplay was even written by a man with how males are depicted in here. Shameful stuff. If it was the other way around and women would have been elaborated on like that, women's rights groups were up in arms already. If they had seen this movie, that is. It went a lot under the radar and given the quality this is certainly a good thing.
Now a few more words on the story. If normale people went on such a journey, then it would be normal fates, a lot of talking and realistic dialogue, admittedly not too interesting perhaps, and maybe the only drama would be that once or twice they are unsure which direction they should go to reach the target location for the night. But if it is an ARD Degeto production, then things look completely different. One character wants to take her man's ashes to the desert whil being accompanied by the woman with whom her husband had an affair. Of course you don't fire her, not even after the death of her husband, you take her on such a journey. Another character finds out that her daughter is about to move in with her father and will also work for him and has plans to one day take over his business. And another character admits she is a lesbian and that she has a crush on another character. This confession came after one character told her that she seems so cold towards men and that not even the handsome tour guide would have a chance with her probably. Again nice way to talk about men. It's only sexist the other way around. Anyway, what I actually wanted to say is that this quote clearly never would have been said like that in real life. It as only there to build up towards the homosexuality confession. Oh nice, they included another issue here to elaborate on the subject of tolerance in our times. What a contemporarily relevant film this is. Of course the song by Des'ree must be included. Good song in fact, but really again a use of something that has nice quality, but cannot save a crappy movie like this. Just like the western jingle early on. Or like the beautiful landscapes in this movie that not even the least talented television cinematographer could mess up. So they had some fine ideas what to include here honestly, but in the end it is all just make-believe and style over substance because every time the cast and crew were required to deliver talent and creativity themselves and not rely on others who did so before them, they come incredibly short. Actually, they do not even get started if we are accurate. The ending is the best example really. They arrive at Silver Lake and they see it is a bit of a tourist destination, so they want to move on to get rid of the ashes to a more personal place. This actually was a decent idea, but the way it is executed here, it felt very shallow. As if these women were any better then the other ones celebrating there. Pretty vain in my opinion. And how dare this film in general make fun of the actual Winnetou movies in terms of how (un)realistic they were, for example with how many languages one character speaks in those. Maybe they should work on their own realism first before criticizing the films this is about. And I say this as somebody who never cared at all about the Winnetou movies. I know many people love them or at least loved them when they were released, but I never found them too appealing and still I think this film here is quite an insult to those. Pierre Brice was still alive when this movie came out, even if died not much later, but I cannot imagine he appreciate this garbage production honestly. There was only one slightly okay moment in terms of writing and acting and that was when one character speaks to another character about how she is not happy her daughter is bonding with her father again because the two parents are not exactly on good terms. That was alright emotionally and I think it worked. But obviously one good scene is far from enough for a movie that runs for the usual almost 90 minutes German small screen releases do. Especially because for this one scene there were probably over 20 really weak scenes and moments. If I mentioned them all, I would reach the character limit soon. Just one example how they include the East German equivalent to these Karl May films and those starred Gojko Mitic many times and this scene with one character being really fond of those felt so staged and fake in the sense of how they also wanted to please audiences from Saxony etc. Again, it is all about the inclusion and that is enough for them. It is never about the quality of said inclusion. Or the complete lack thereof. So yeah, it is a really bad film to be honest. But, like I said, if we take a look at the production company, the names and bodies of work from the director and writer and also Maren Kroymann and Floriane Daniel playing lead roles, I am not surprised at all about the outcome here. Really only very simple people would mistake the latter two for actress who can pull off strong female characters. This is a film you want to skip at any cost. Highly not recommended.
Now a few more words on the story. If normale people went on such a journey, then it would be normal fates, a lot of talking and realistic dialogue, admittedly not too interesting perhaps, and maybe the only drama would be that once or twice they are unsure which direction they should go to reach the target location for the night. But if it is an ARD Degeto production, then things look completely different. One character wants to take her man's ashes to the desert whil being accompanied by the woman with whom her husband had an affair. Of course you don't fire her, not even after the death of her husband, you take her on such a journey. Another character finds out that her daughter is about to move in with her father and will also work for him and has plans to one day take over his business. And another character admits she is a lesbian and that she has a crush on another character. This confession came after one character told her that she seems so cold towards men and that not even the handsome tour guide would have a chance with her probably. Again nice way to talk about men. It's only sexist the other way around. Anyway, what I actually wanted to say is that this quote clearly never would have been said like that in real life. It as only there to build up towards the homosexuality confession. Oh nice, they included another issue here to elaborate on the subject of tolerance in our times. What a contemporarily relevant film this is. Of course the song by Des'ree must be included. Good song in fact, but really again a use of something that has nice quality, but cannot save a crappy movie like this. Just like the western jingle early on. Or like the beautiful landscapes in this movie that not even the least talented television cinematographer could mess up. So they had some fine ideas what to include here honestly, but in the end it is all just make-believe and style over substance because every time the cast and crew were required to deliver talent and creativity themselves and not rely on others who did so before them, they come incredibly short. Actually, they do not even get started if we are accurate. The ending is the best example really. They arrive at Silver Lake and they see it is a bit of a tourist destination, so they want to move on to get rid of the ashes to a more personal place. This actually was a decent idea, but the way it is executed here, it felt very shallow. As if these women were any better then the other ones celebrating there. Pretty vain in my opinion. And how dare this film in general make fun of the actual Winnetou movies in terms of how (un)realistic they were, for example with how many languages one character speaks in those. Maybe they should work on their own realism first before criticizing the films this is about. And I say this as somebody who never cared at all about the Winnetou movies. I know many people love them or at least loved them when they were released, but I never found them too appealing and still I think this film here is quite an insult to those. Pierre Brice was still alive when this movie came out, even if died not much later, but I cannot imagine he appreciate this garbage production honestly. There was only one slightly okay moment in terms of writing and acting and that was when one character speaks to another character about how she is not happy her daughter is bonding with her father again because the two parents are not exactly on good terms. That was alright emotionally and I think it worked. But obviously one good scene is far from enough for a movie that runs for the usual almost 90 minutes German small screen releases do. Especially because for this one scene there were probably over 20 really weak scenes and moments. If I mentioned them all, I would reach the character limit soon. Just one example how they include the East German equivalent to these Karl May films and those starred Gojko Mitic many times and this scene with one character being really fond of those felt so staged and fake in the sense of how they also wanted to please audiences from Saxony etc. Again, it is all about the inclusion and that is enough for them. It is never about the quality of said inclusion. Or the complete lack thereof. So yeah, it is a really bad film to be honest. But, like I said, if we take a look at the production company, the names and bodies of work from the director and writer and also Maren Kroymann and Floriane Daniel playing lead roles, I am not surprised at all about the outcome here. Really only very simple people would mistake the latter two for actress who can pull off strong female characters. This is a film you want to skip at any cost. Highly not recommended.
