It’s the perfect Christmas gift for all Karl May and Winnetou fans, but you need to pre-order it now. From December 1, 2023 there will be “Winnetou 1” in a 4K Ultra HD re-release. Because this appears in the limited media book, there is a risk that the publication will already be sold out on the release date. Our advice is therefore to order them in advance, which is possible on Amazon, for example:
“Winnetou I” has probably never looked as stunning as we expect from the new release. Finally, the home cinema highlight presents the famous Western adventure in 4K Ultra HD for the first time. Visual eye candy isn’t the only reason to buy the new release. The media book, which is published just in time for the 60th anniversary, includes a detailed booklet and numerous extras.
For many of you, “Winnetou I” is probably one of the classics from your own childhood. If you are one of the few who has never seen the hit film, we will briefly introduce it to you.
This is “Winnetou I”
After ‘The Treasure in the Silver Lake’ became the most successful film of the year with ten million visitors in 1962, it was clear that more film adaptations of Karl May would be made with the Frenchman Pierre Brice and the American Lex Barker for the eyes of the cinema. camera and German director Harald Reinl have to go after it – and what better way to do this than to show the legendary duo Winnetou and Old Shatterhand getting to know each other and starting a trilogy.
“Winnetou I” was published in December 1963. The story: An engineer known only as Old Shatterhand (Lex Barker) because of his hard hitting, effectively caused the newly planned railroad to avoid Apache territory. But the construction contractor Bancroft (Branko Špoljar) and the crook Santer (Mario Adorf) are still laying tracks across the tribe’s hunting grounds. This leads to a confrontation with Apache warrior Winnetou (Pierre Brice), who initially thinks that Old Shatterhand is his opponent and even wants to kill him on the torture stake…
How enemies become not only friends, but even blood brothers, who stand together against the devilish Santer and his Kiowas allies, moved the masses upon the film’s release. The story, although sometimes downright kitschy, was always dramatic and exciting, with its beautiful landscape photographs taken in Croatia, and attracted around 10.5 million people to the cinemas. Even today, the western Karl May still delights fans from time to time with cinema revivals, regular TV repeats and especially in home theaters – from December onwards it is better than ever before.