With “Der Schuh des Manitu” (The Manitou’s Shoe), Michael “Bully” Herbig achieved phenomenal box office success right at the beginning of the 2000s. The western parody, which even trumped “Avatar” here for a long time, will soon disappear from Prime subscriptions.
The sketch show “Bullyparade” and his absolutely fabulous appearances on TV Total to this day ensured that Michael “Bully Herbig” reached the peak of general popularity in the late 1990s, early 2000s. Just how popular the comedian from Munich really was, however, was to emerge with the “Winnetou” parody “Der Schuh des Manitu” – the first feature film for which Bully was responsible for the leading role, directing and screenplay.
With an unbelievable 11.7 (!) million visitors, “Der Schuh des Manitu” is still the most successful German film of all time in this country and has simply outstripped classics such as “Die Brücke”, “Otto – Der Film” or “Der Schatz im Silbersee”. In Germany, “Der Schuh des Manitu” was also more successful than James Cameron’s blockbuster epic “Avatar”, which attracted 11.3 million visitors. Important: The figures are, of course, for the first releases; re-releases of the two films are not included.
If you haven’t seen “Der Schuh des Manitu” yet, or if you simply want to experience the western parody again after many years, you’d better get a move on: The film is only available in the Amazon Prime Video subscription until 31 October. After that, you can switch to the paid rental and purchase version on Prime or alternatively visit Disney+, where “Der Schuh des Manitu” can also be streamed as a subscription.
THIS IS WHAT “THE MANITOU’S SHOE” IS ABOUT
Whoever is in debt to the Shoshone better take care of paying off his debts as soon as possible. The Apache chief Abahachi (Herbig) and his blood brother Ranger (Christian Tramitz) have to find this out for themselves after they borrow gold to turn a saloon into a tribal pub for social evenings. But the villain Santa Maria (Sky Du Mont) has ripped off the duo.
The gold is gone and the Apache pub is a ramshackle shack that is really only fit for demolition. To make matters worse, Santa Maria shoots the Shoshone chief’s son – and then blames Abahachi and Ranger for the crime. The blood brothers end up at the stake and have only one way to survive:
Abahachi knows about a hidden treasure. Unfortunately, the chief only has one of the four parts of the treasure map. The others are in the possession of his twin brother Winnetouch (Herbig in a double role), the Greek Dimitri (Rick Kavanian) and the bar singer Uschi (Marie Bäumer). A crazy ride through the dusty expanses of the Wild West begins…
