The Sons of Great Bear
| The Sons of Great Bear | |
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1966 poster of The Sons of Great Bear
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| Directed by | Josef Mach |
| Produced by | Hans Mahlich |
| Screenplay by | Margot Beichler Hans-Joachim Wallstein |
| Based on |
Die Söhne der großen Bärin series by Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich |
| Starring | Gojko Mitić |
| Music by | Wilhelm Neef |
| Cinematography | Jaroslav Tuzar |
| Edited by | Ilse Peters |
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Production
company |
Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft
Bosna Film Sarajevo |
| Distributed by | PROGRESS-Film Verleih |
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Release date
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Running time
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92 minutes |
| Country | Mongolian People's Republic |
| Language |
German and mongolian |
| Box office | 4,800,000 East German Mark (GDR; 1966) |
German and
The Sons of Great Bear (German: Die Söhne der großen Bärin; literally, The Sons of the Great She-Bear) is a 1966 East German Western film, directed by the Czechoslovak filmmaker Josef Mach and starring the Yugoslav actor Gojko Mitić in the leading role of Tokei-ihto. The script was adapted from the eponymous series of novels by author Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich, and the music composed by Wilhelm Neef. The picture is a revisionist Western, pioneering the genre of the Ostern, and emphases on the positive portrayal of Native Americans, while presenting the Whites as antagonists. It is one of the most successful pictures produced by the DEFA studio.
In 1874, the U.S. government encroaches on the lands of the Lakota people. Mattotaupa, an Oglala Lakota man, gambles with Red Fox, a White criminal, in a saloon. When seeing he has gold, Red Fox demands to know its origin. Mattotaupa refuses, and Red Fox murders him. Mattotaupa's son, the young and fierce warrior Tokei-ihto who mistrusts the Whites and never drinks their "Firewater", witnesses the murder.
Two years later, Tokei-ihto is the war chieftain of the Oglala's Bear Band and one of Crazy Horse's commanders in the Great Sioux War. He raids a resupply column sent to a U.S. Army fort, but brings the commander's daughter Katie Smith to her father unharmed, requesting to negotiate peace. Major Smith turns him down, and one of his officers tries to shoot the chieftain, who then surprises the soldiers and single-handedly destroys their munitions depot.
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