Sebastian Harrison is Shining Sky, a white boy adopted and raised by the Apache Chief White Bear.
His mother was the lone survivor of a renegade attack on a Mormon wagon train. She was rescued by the Indians, but died in childbirth.
Shining Sky grows especially close to his Apache brother Black Wolf until a pretty Indian maiden named Rising Sun (Lola Forner) comes between them.
When it becomes clear she prefers Shining Sky, Black Wolf vows vengeance. Shining Sky winds up killing him, accidentally, during a sort of Indian lacrosse match.
Cast out of the tribe, Shining Sky is hired as a horse trainer by a rancher named Cribbens who’s sympathetic to the Indians. He also winds up in the bed of a flirtatious redhead named Isabella.
But trouble is brewing. The sheriff and a leading citizen known as The Colonel are plotting the extermination of the Indians in the name of progress.
The man they’ve chosen to expedite matters is the vicious Bart Ryder (Charly Bravo), a scalphunter with a large band of gunmen to back him.
Sebastian Harrison as Shining Sky in White Apache (1987)
Lola Forner as Rising Sun in White Apache (1987)
Review:
A film that tries to shock with violence. And one that just winds up being shockingly bad.
Seven minutes into the film, we’ve already witnessed two poorly filmed massacres, which sets the standard for nearly all the action scenes that follow.
The first half of the film will actually make you chuckle, it’s so bad. But then things take a more violent, sadistic turn and those chuckles are likely to turn into groans.
If you remember anything long after watching, it’s likely to be the scene in which Shining Sky hurls a tomahawk that embeds itself in the face of Bart Ryder, the film’s chief villain. He spends the rest of the film wearing a patch that covers half his face.
Oh, and there’s some sort of Indian wise man named Crazy Bull who roams the hills spouting words of wisdom and has a knack for being in the right place at nearly the right time.
Charly Bravo as Bart Ryder, the scalp hunter, in White Apache (1987)
Sebastian Harrison as Shining Sky with Ignacio Carreno as his brother Black Wolf in White Apache (1987)
Directed by:
Claudio Fragasso, Bruno Mattei (as Vincent Dawn)
Cast:
Sebastian Harrison … Shining Sky
Lola Forner … Rising Sun
Alberto Farnese … Colonel
as Albert Farley
Charly Bravo … Bart Ryder
Cinzia de Ponti … Isabella
Beni Cardoso … Duena
Luciano Pigozzi … Cribbens
as Alan Collins
Charles Borromel … Crazy Bull
Emilio Linder… Sheriff Armstrong
Jose Canalejas … White Bear
Ignacio Carreno … Black Wolf
Runtime: 94 min.
aka
Bianco Apache
Apache Kid
Music: Luigi Ceccarelli
Alberto Farnese (Albert Farley) as The Colonel, the man behind the Indian massaces, in White Apache (1987)
Cinzia de Ponti as Isabella, The Colonel’s flirtatious daughter, in White Apache (1987)
Memorable lines:
Apache elder: “White woman will bring us trouble!”
Crazy Bull to Shining sky: “Water washes and fire burns, and there’s nothing you can do about it. You have a white worm in your brain.”
“The Apache nation is in mourning because of you. The Great Spirit abandons us! Damn you!”
Shining Sky: “Why is it that my skin is white and yours is not?”
Rising Sun: “The Great Spirit has so willed it.”
Ryder to Shining Sky, after tying him high in a tree, dangling by his wrists: “You ain’t gonna pester nobody around here again. I want you sufferin’ a whole lot before you die. You’re gonna hang here ’til the sun fries you or the ants crawl up there and get ya..”
Emilio Linder as Sheriff Armstrong, the corrupt lawman, in White Apache (1987)
Luiciano Pigozzi (Alan Collins) as Cribbens, the man sympathetic to the Indians, in White Apache (1987)
Trivia:
* There’s a companion to this film, “Scalps,” also released in 1987 by the same directing duo and starring Vassili Karis and Mapi Galan.
* Sebastian Harrison is the son of Richard Harrison, veteran of many an Italian film. This was one of six films he appeared in and his only lead role. Check out his acting and you’ll understand why.
* Lola Forner was Miss Spain 1979. Two of her first film appearances were in Zorro-type (The Black Wolf and Revenge of the Black Wolf) films directed by Rafael Romero Marchent. She also had a supporting role in “Scalps” and was still active on TV as of 2009.
Charles Borromel as Crazy Bull in White Apache (1987)
Jose Canalejas as White Bear, chief and father of Shining Sky and Black Wolf, in White Apache (1987)
Lola Forner as Rising Sun in White Apache (1987)
Sebastian Harrison as Shining Sky in White Apache (1987)
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