Chingachgook: The Great Snake Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		2.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Chingachgook: The Great Snake Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov September 10, 2026

Richard Groschopp's "Chingachgook: The Great Serpent" (1967) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Eureka Entertainment. The only bonus features on the release is a new video essay created by western scholar Jenny Barrett. In German, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

During the Cold War era, the classic adventure novels offered the easiest way out of the Communist Bloc because they were rarely censored and their sales were not closely monitored.

The classic crime novels, the biggest competitors of the classic adventure novels, were treated differently. For example, classic crime novels that offered colorful, unfiltered descriptions of life in America, like those by Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Chester Himes, were continuously scanned for problematic content and censored, just like films. They had very limited runs -- because state publishers, all operated by the Party, had to prioritize novels that promoted the ideas and policies the Party was pushing to the masses -- so that they interfered as little as possible with the desired sales of safe novels, the majority of which were Russophilic. Also, the select few bookstores that were actually allowed to sell the classic crime novels, all also operated by the Party and virtually all concentrated in the big cities, routinely ran waiting and sales lists, which made it easy to identify individuals who had “unhealthy interest” in American/Western culture. (This practice made various classic crime novels unusually hot items on the black market, where they were often sold or traded for other extremely hard-to-find smuggled goods, like American jeans, whiskey, Marlboro cigarettes, and Swiss Toblerone chocolate bars). Predictably, the very different treatment of the classic crime novels made the classic adventure novels incredibly popular amongst all age groups where reading was a favorite escapist practice.

This is when DEFA and Mosfilm, the biggest cultural propaganda arms of the Party, began investing in the “red westerns”, with DEFA producing just about all of them. It is when Yugoslavian actor Gojko Mitic, who was cast to play various Indian characters in the “red westerns”, also became a superstar in the Communist Bloc.

Directed by Richard Groschopp in 1967, Chingachgook: The Great Serpent is one of the more ambitious “red westerns” with Mitic that DEFA produced. It is loosely based on James Fenimore Cooper’s novel The Deerslayer, published in 1841, and it was shot on multiple locations throughout the Communist Bloc. Like the rest of the “red westerns”, Chingachgook: The Great Serpent serves a lot of anti-American preaching, attached to a supposedly objective depiction of the clash between the various Indian tribes and the rapidly multiplying settlers. (The great irony is that in 1961, just a few years before DEFA began producing the “red westerns”, East German and Russian workers started erecting the Berlin Wall, and border soldiers executed hundreds of people attempting to escape from East Berlin to West Berlin. Many more who were arrested near the Berlin Wall were also locked up and left to rot in state prisons).

Mitic plays Chingachgook, a fearless Mohican warrior who intends to marry Wahtawah (Andrea Drahota), the beautiful daughter of the Delaware chief. When Huron warriors kidnap his future wife, Chingachgook begins searching for her and, shortly after, crosses paths with his loyal white friend Deerslayer (Rolf Romer). However, after clashing with the Huron warriors, Chingachgook is also taken prisoner. Despite trying to convince the Huron chief and most respected warriors that he is not their enemy and the Indian tribes must unite to have a chance to survive the British and French forces driving them out of their land, Chingachgook is told that he faces death. But before the Huron warriors can send him to his maker, all hell breaks loose.

Groschopp’s camera produces many gorgeous panoramic visuals from Bulgaria and Slovakia, which provided virtually all the landscapes needed to fake the American wilderness. Some of the large-scale action footage from the final act is pretty decent, too. However, like all “red westerns”, Chingachgook: The Great Serpent is a clumsy, frequently poorly acted film.

During the 1960s and 1970s, DEFA intentionally avoided Karl May and Friedrich Gerstacker’s adventure novels, which were some of the most popular in East and West Germany. However, Winnetou, May's iconic character, appeared in multiple foreign westerns that were shot on location in Yugoslavia, the only country in the Communist Bloc that allowed talent from Western Europe and America to work in co-productions. Harald Reinl’s three Winnetou films are frequently described as European classics.

Chingachgook: The Great Snake Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.34:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Chingachgook: The Great Snake arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Eureka Entertainment.

It is difficult to praise the remastering work that someone apparently on behalf of DEFA because the bulk of Chingachgook: The Great Snake does not have a proper organic appearance. The main source of various troubles -- ranging from underwhelming detail to underwhelming dynamic range -- is filtering work. It is difficult to explain why it was applied because the visuals are stable and boasting strong density levels. However, the effects of this filtering work tend to produce unmissable anomalies like the ones seen here. This is frustrating, to say the least, because color reproduction and balance, despite some instability, is good. In other words, without the filleting work, Chingachgook: The Great Snake could have had a predictably attractive organic appearance. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Chingachgook: The Great Snake Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: German LPCM 2.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

Despite some inconsistencies, the lossless track is quite good. Its clarity is its greatest strength. However, dynamic intensity is fairly modest, even during the action material, which was a common limitation on the "red western". The English translation is excellent. Also, the size of the English translation is excellent.

Chingachgook: The Great Snake Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Old West, New Perspective - this video essay was created by western scholar Jenny Barrett, author of Shooting the Civil War. In English, not subtitled. (22 min).

• Book - a limited edition 60-page collector's book featuring part one of a new extended essay on the history of the DEFA Indianerfilme by Lee Broughton, author of The Euro-Western.

Chingachgook: The Great Snake Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

All "red westerns" are propaganda films. The Communist Party used them to serve various doses of anti-American preaching, hoping that they would outclass and collapse the popularity of Hollywood's westerns in the Communist Bloc. DEFA produced virtually all of them, while Mosfilm, where necessary, provided logistical support. Top red bureaucrats in Moscow who oversaw Mosfilm also approved permits that made it possible to shoot the "red westerns" all across the Communist Bloc, with Yugoslavia being the preferred destination for them. Some of these films have a historical value because they began emerging during the 1960s, shortly after Moscow and East Berlin started erecting the Berlin Wall, and border soldiers executed hundreds of people attempting to escape to West Berlin, which made the hypocrisy of their preaching rather remarkable. Chingachgook: The Great Serpent is one of the more ambitious "red westerns" produced by DEFA. It was also yet another show-off piece for Balkan superstar Gojko Mitic, who routinely played various Indian characters in them. Chingachgook: The Great Serpent is included in Eureka Entertainment's Eastern Trails: The Western at DEFA, a two-disc set.