Reviews & Ratings for
Manitou's Shoe More at IMDbPro »Der Schuh des Manitu (original title)

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47 reviews in total

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59 out of 62 people found the following review useful:
An Object Lesson: Avoid All Dubbed Movies!, 12 February 2005

Author: AddisonDeWitt

Why is it that foreign films are so notoriously unpopular in America? Does the phrase "lost in translation" ring a bell? Michael "Bully" Herbig is a brilliant comic, writer, actor, and director and his television show is one of the funniest ever seen, just as "Der Schuh des Manitou" has the distinction (believe it or not) of being the most successful German-language movie of all time.

But like all great comedians, Herbig uses linguistics to point up the content. As someone else on this site mentions: Yes, you are basically screwed if you don't speak German and understand various dialects and the socio-political ramifications of the context in which they are employed.

Let's take "Monty Python" for example: there is simply no way to translate this humour. It can be done fairly well with subtitles, but to try and translate the actual text into another language and dub over the original voices? Think of just about any scene in a Python film or TV sketch and try to imagine it dubbed into another language. It just wouldn't work.

Another example is why Mel Brooks' brilliant early films are nowhere near as funny dubbed into German as they are in the original English. "The Producers," "Blazing Saddles," and "Young Frankenstein" all depend to some degree on the use of overdone, stereotypical German and/or Yiddish accents. When you dub these movies into German, you lose the jokes. Take a classic line from "Young Frankenstein:" being told of the scale of the monster's body parts, Teri Garr (as Inga) says, "He vould have an enormous schwanzstucker." This word doesn't exist in German: Brooks made it up as something he thought English audiences would find funny as a German euphemism for "penis." The joke is simply untranslatable.

The same applies to "Der Schuh des Manitou." I can't begin to imagine how it must sound translated into English (or any other language for that matter) – sheer nonsense, I imagine. As a native English-speaker, I best enjoyed the film when I watched the DVD with the German subtitles switched on (some of the dialects are a bit much for me), but I was falling over and crying with laughter. It is a comic masterpiece, but I can only imagine that to see it in a dubbed version is a waste of time.

Even the premise doesn't translate well: Germans and Austrians have maintained for a century a fascination with the American wild west novels of Karl May (written and published in German and still widely available and collected in various old editions), about the native American Indian Winitou. How bizarre is that? Herbig takes it to the extreme by parodying the countries' obsession with cowboys and Indians, but then having them speak in German dialects and even German dialect parodies of movie Indian language.

Herbig's latest film, "(T)Raumschiff Surprise: Periode 1" (OK: there are already three jokes in the title which would take 250 words to explain!) is a sort of gay parody of "Star Trek" (and "Star Wars" and the Indiana Jones films, etc.), and there is no way I can begin to translate for you the jokes in the character names (i.e. Mr. Spuck) and the use of dialects. Consider this: Schrotty speaks Bavarian dialect with a Scottish accent. How can you possible translate that?

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25 out of 26 people found the following review useful:
Seen for the first time (English subtitle version), 12 December 2004

Author: Rastas from Brisbane Australia

I like movies that make me feel good and surprise me.

I am a non German language savvy viewer and as such relied heavily on the sub titles. It was clear to me that the translations or humour misses the point for English speakers in some instances.

Not withstanding that, I still laughed out loud in a room full of people who were looking at me strangely.

I appreciated the humour (and who cares if I missed any of it, I will never know). I was asked by a friend to describe it and I called it a "Flying High in the desert, in the style of sauerkraut western" They understood immediately and sat down to watch the rest of it with me, laughing just as hard.

Simple comedy, good angles for the humour. I enjoyed... 9/10 for something just out there and surprising.

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18 out of 23 people found the following review useful:
A big laugh from start to finish (9/10), 26 July 2001

Author: Leonard Tulipan from Vienna, Austria

Well, you shouldn't expect a good story-line or high-drama. But if you expect laughs and some movie-parodies your at home. You will notice a lot of scenes are spoofed from classics. The cast definitely had a lot of fun making the movie. The shots are great.

So to sum up the story: Abahachi borrows money from the apache. Unfortunately the son of the apache chief gets killed by Santa Maria (the villain), who also steels the money. So Ranger and Abahachi go look for a treasure map, to find a diamond, Abahachi once hid a long time ago.

The story is secondary, the emphasis on this movie is on FUN. I gave it a 9. Go see it, and wait till the end. After the credits Winnetouch has a little scene.

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23 out of 34 people found the following review useful:
Favorite Movie!!!!, 2 September 2005

Author: schauspieler88 from Pennsylvania, United States

This is by far the best German film I have ever seen, and it is most definitely one of the funniest I've ever seen in my entire life. The comedic timing with Abahachi and Ranger were perfect, and Winnietouch added even more of a twist and even more laughs - being a gay Indian. This movie was meant to bash a German writer back in (I'm not sure) the late 1800's who wrote about the American Wild West, even though he had never been there. So of course, his stories were ridiculous and often hard to believe. "Der Schuh des Manitu" embodies everything a spoof should be, with love affairs, gay Indians, misunderstandings, random happenings, and, of course, a truly spectacular cast! I hope this encourages everyone who reads this to definitely check out this movie, because it's definitely worth it!!

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19 out of 27 people found the following review useful:
So the Germans do have a sense of humour after all..., 12 September 2003

Author: TrevorAclea from London, England

Like wines, some comedies just don't travel: most German comedies shouldn't even make the effort. Having sat through (or tried to) a few German comedies in the past that were so parochial as to be completely mystifying to anyone outside that country's borders (not to mention painfully unfunny in the loudest possible way), the last thing I ever expected to ever be able to recommend was a German comedy, but MANITOU'S SHOE (in it's 'Extra Large' version at least) is hysterically funny for at least 75 of its 102 minutes.

You don't have to have seen the WINNETOU films to get most of the jokes - pitched somewhere between vintage Zucker and Abrahams with a pinch of classic Mel Brooks. Indeed, it may even help that audiences outside Germany are not familiar with Bully Herbig's TV work: the repetition of TV sketches that so many German viewers have complained about really isn't an issue for us foreigners.

Like most comedies, it runs out of steam towards the end when the need to wrap up the plot (such as it is) takes over, but for much of its running time it throws in some breathtakingly absurd and unexpected jokes, all the funnier for being delivered straight (special kudos here to Sky Dumont as Santa Maria, who subverts audience expectations to brilliant effect). There are a few jokes and characters that fall flat, most notably a Greek Apache who has nothing funny to say or do, but there are so many laugh-out-loud-even-when-you're-on-your-own moments here that you can forgive them.

Also worth noting is the fact that, unlike most comedies (especially ones with their origins in television), MANITOU looks like a real film: well directed with a good use of the Scope frame and a genuine sense of scale. One word of warning for non-German speakers - avoid the dubbed version of the original cut, which appears to have been dubbed by many of the original cast who think their English/America accents are a lot better than they actually are (a major factor in the film not being released in English-speaking territories despite its massive local success). The 'Extra Large' version has a different American voice cast, and a very good one too - the voices sound right for the characters for a change.

Bottom line, it's not big, it's not clever, but it is funny.

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10 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
It is very easy to get addicted to this movie, 19 September 2001

Author: efi_de from Munich, Bavaria

"Der Schuh des Manitu" may not be the best movie ever made, but it is certainly the best one to keep me sane in times like these (September 2001). It is such a feelgood movie, that no matter how foul my mood is that day, after I've seen it, I'm really uplifted. It is very easy to get addicted to this movie because the characters are so lovable, and it pays sort of hommage to one of my childhood heroes - Winnetou. The dialogues are made of phrases that we in Munich use in daily life, and Abahachi, Winnetouch and Ranger speak the same dialect as my friends and I do, so it is more like following our neighbours lives, than watching a movie, except maybe for the locations and the costumes. The camera work is splendid and the musical score is very touching. Michael Herbig has done great in writing and directing, and his unforgettable performances as the Indian twin brothers are way too good for words. A highly recommended movie if you are in need of a laugh. And stay till after the end credits, you won't regret it!

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7 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
The year's funniest movie, 21 January 2002

Author: slimschaffer from Luenen, Germany

At first I was a little bit worried about a satire of Winnetou, a very good old german movie. But when I sat in cinema, I hardly could stop laughing. Director Michael Herbig succeed totally in making a good movie. At least I have to admit that the story does not play a great part, but this really does not matter. This is why "Der Shuh des Manitu" is the film with the most visitors. Even better than Harry Potter! Go and watch this great film!

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7 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
A funny European Western, 17 January 2002

Author: LuiLieschen from Ludwigsburg, Germany

The main characters known from german TV (Bully Parade, SAT1) play a very funny comedy western parody. If you understand german, please watch it in our language, because in translations you wouldn't know that the Indians and Cow-Boys speak Bavarian dialect! (But understandable - don't worry!) This movie is really worth to watch and as far as I know THE best visited german made movie in cinemas!

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5 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Turn of critique and laugh it up, 3 January 2009

Author: traveleralex from Canada

This movie is not meant to be intellectually stimulating or life-changing. It is meant to be quotable and overall hilarious. The story is simple: Apache and Friend in trouble, Apache has quarter of treasure map to get out of trouble, bad guy follows Apache around trying to find treasure.

Having said that, the movie is filled with little gems of comedy (see Superperforator or ice cream). It also redefines the use of a pen.

The acting in this movie is also quite good. Dimitri, Ranger, and Abahachi are a well known comedy trio who are excellent sketch comedians. As the movie is in a way a 90 minute collection of sketches with the same characters, the performances seem very natural.

I'd say it's probably the best full-out comedy to come out of Germany in some time.

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4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
One of my favorites, 1 August 2005

Author: (petrovaz@mail.ru) from Russian Federation

A wonderful comedy about Abahachi and Ranger who upon escaping from the hostile Schoschone tribe embark on a quest to find buried treasure of the Apache people. Little do they know that they are followed by the notorious Santa Maria gang but everything changes most unexpectedly when Abahachi's twin brother Winnetouch emerges. Yes, I know, this film was not just a hit, it was a smash in the German speaking part of the world. They should definitely have done it in English, only this way could it achieve a wider release and, I hope, recognition it really deserves. Down here in Russia Manitu's shoe came out in a single ( can you imagine it ) movie theatre in Moscow! No wonder, it went unnoticed. It was not until two years later that the film hit TV and we realized how much we missed. The movie became the top selling DVD overnight. I remember dropping at some video store and asking if they had Manitu's shoe, the salesman told me that this DVD was unavailable then because of an overwhelming demand. He said: Whenever we get this film, it is sold out within a couple of hours. Personally I love this film immensely. Very entertaining, with snappy writing, it pokes fun at an all too familiar genre. The cast is excellent, I enjoyed every moment of this movie and I want to see it again and again.

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