What makes it different from others?

A Brilliant Conflict

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

"Old Shatterhand" is a collaboration between four European countries and a German-language film from 1964, so this one is already over 50 years old. It is the third installment of the Karl May Winnetou series and among the most famous films from the series. The title here implies that Old Shatterhand, played by Lex Barker, is the star of this film, but this is not really true. The result is just that Winnetou has less screen-time, which means Pierre Brice is not featured prominently really in here, even if he has more scenes than in latter films. This could be fine as Brice is not the most talented actor under the sun, but sadly the story is so mediocre and forgettable that it's just never an interesting, let alone compelling watch. At over two hours, this is possibly the longest film from the Karl May franchise and this turns into a major problem as the movie drags a lot on many occasions and at some point it just felt as if it would never end. If you know these films a bit, then you will know that the visual side (costumes, sets, cinematography) is always worth seeing, but also that the plot and story are hardly realistic or well thought-through. The character elaboration could have been so much better. There are a handful actors in here like Battaglia and Wolter and others who appears in a whole lot of these Karl May films, but these are also not good enough or don't have enough to work with in order to really elevate the material here. If this is what was considered a quality film over 50 years ago, then I can only say it has not aged well at all and I am glad we have better films in terms of quality and quantity these days. A disappointing watch and worth seeing only for the most die-hard Indian western film fans. I do not recommend it. Thumbs down.

To my mind, it s the best movie about Winnetou. It's less romantic than Harald Reinls films about Winnetou. It's more realistic. But it is unforgettable. Pierre Brice's Winnetou is fascinating. It's simple, but noble and very convincing. Especially the scene in which he find his dead son Tujunga, is very touching. His antagonists are strong characters. Guy Madison, Rik Battaglia Mirko Ellis. Sam Hawkens (Ralf Wolter) is a vivid character as always. Daliah Lavi is exotic as Paloma. Lex Barker isn't a very interesting actor, but he has a right figure and face for Shatterhand. This movie have the very best 2 man's fighting scene (Winnetou and the Comanche's's chief) and the best big battle's scene in Winnetou movies. Only the music isn't so good as music of Peter Thomas ("Winnetou and sein freund Old Firehand") and Martin Boettcher (other Winnetou movies).

This movie stresses to Lex Barker, and Winnetou degenerates as a helping rider. For those music fans, rely on Martin Boettcher, Daliah Lavi didn' t sing a typical song. Some kind of action is worth watching the non original Karl May picturization.

Unfortunately this movie is very bad. It is written poorly by people who have never read Karl May. It is filmed pretty badly, too. After the success of "Winnetou I" the other big german producer, Brauner, wanted to make some money out of this "milkcow", too. But like all the other movies he then made after books of Karl May (and I have seen them all), the movies were hastily produced and turned out to be worse than those of his competitor. Even the costumes seem to be made for a dude ranch. There's only one or two scenes that are fun to watch, the rest is just boooring. Take my advice and spare yourself the time. Watch "Der Schatz im Silbersee" instead.