Escape the heat and watch a German comedy with us on Thursday, June 16, 2011, at 6:30 p.m. in the Parish Hall of Christ the King Lutheran Church, 2353 Rice Boulevard, Houston, TX 77005. As is customary, we will have a food and beverage reception until 7:00 p.m. The movie will be shown in English.
The meeting fee is $7 for members, $10 for nonmembers, and $5 for students, regardless of whether you participate in the reception. Parking is available on the Rice University Stadium lot off Greenbriar at Entrance 13B.
Please RSVP to Angelika Schmidt-Lange as soon as possible, so that we may plan for the refreshments.
Der Schuh des Manitu is said to be the most successful German movie since 1945, as more than nine million people went to the cinema to view this irreverent parody of American westerns and the heroes of Karl May. (A 19th century German writer of American Indian adventure stories, Karl May vividly pictured Indian life and war, even though he had never been to the United States. His most famous hero was Winnetou).
The movie deals with the trials and tribulations of Ranger, one of the two protagonists, who once saved the life of Abahachi, an Apache Indian chief. The two became blood brothers and set out to search for hidden treasure at a mountain called “Manitu’s Shoe.” During their travels they are falsely accused of murder of a Shoshone Indian chief’s son; while awaiting execution, they escape. During the search for parts of their treasure map, a gangster boss is hard on their heels in search of the same map.
According to Wikipedia, the “movie borrows from the parodies of Mel Brooks like Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Blazing Saddles, and Dracula: Dead and Loving It. Its humor consists largely of blatant anachronisms, scenes such as the character Ranger getting stopped by a sheriff for “fast riding” and being asked for his “riding license”, or Santa Maria connecting the dots on a map by using a feather with a marker-tip. Greek character Dimitri owns a mule named Apollo 13 (his twelve brothers – and subsequently, he as well – were killed by speeding trains), and for lack of a hatchet the Shoshones, a Native American tribe, dig out a folding-chair they had buried.”
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