''Chato's Land'' is a 1972

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

Technicolor Technicolor is a family of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes. The first version, Process 1, was introduced in 1916, and improved versions followed over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black-and ...

film directed by

Michael Winner Michael Robert Winner (30 October 1935 – 21 January 2013) was an English filmmaker, writer, and media personality. He is known for directing numerous action, thriller, and black comedy films in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, including several c ...

, starring

Charles Bronson Charles Bronson (born Charles Dennis Buchinsky; November 3, 1921 – August 30, 2003) was an American actor. He was known for his roles in action films and his "granite features and brawny physique". Bronson was born into extreme poverty in ...

and

Jack Palance Walter Jack Palance ( ; born Volodymyr Palahniuk, , ''Volodymyr Ivanovych Palahniuk''; February 18, 1919 – November 10, 2006) was an American screen and stage actor, known to film audiences for playing tough guys and villains. He was nominat ...

. In Apache country, the half-native Chato shoots the local sheriff in self-defense, and finds himself hunted by a posse of ex-Confederates, who rape his wife and leave her hogtied in the open as a bait to trap him. After freeing her, Chato uses his superior fieldcraft skills to lure each of the posse to their deaths. The film can be classified in the revisionist Western genre, which was at its height at the time, with a dramatizing of racism and oblique referencing of the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

. The original screenplay was written by Gerry Wilson.

Plot

The half-

Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...

Chato is racially abused in a bar by the sheriff. He shoots the sheriff dead in

self-defense Self-defense (self-defence primarily in Commonwealth English) is a countermeasure that involves defending the health and well-being of oneself from harm. The use of the right of self-defense as a legal justification for the use of Force (law), ...

and rides out of town on his

Paso Fino The Paso Fino is a naturally gaited light horse breed dating back to horses imported to the Caribbean from Spain. ''Pasos'' are prized for their smooth, natural, four-beat, lateral ambling gait; they are used in many disciplines, but are especi ...

. Former

Confederate A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

Captain Quincey Whitmore dons his uniform and gathers a posse of former Confederate soldiers and sympathizers. Chato, staying one step ahead, fires on the posse from a hilltop, drawing them into a difficult ascent while he descends the other side and scatters their horses. He kills a

rattlesnake Rattlesnakes are venomous snakes that form the genus, genera ''Crotalus'' and ''Sistrurus'' of the subfamily Crotalinae (the pit vipers). All rattlesnakes are vipers. Rattlesnakes are predators that live in a wide array of habitats, hunting sm ...

and wraps the rattle in the snake's skin. Tensions begin to create divisions within the posse. They come across a set of empty

wickiups A wigwam, wikiup, wetu (Wampanoag), or wiigiwaam (Ojibwe, in syllabics: ) is a semi-permanent domed dwelling formerly used by certain Native American tribes and First Nations people and still used for ceremonial events. The term ''wikiup'' ...

and gleefully burn them. Chato greets his wife at their

hogan A hogan ( or ; from Navajo ' ) is the primary, traditional dwelling of the Navajo people. Other traditional structures include the summer shelter, the underground home, and the sweat house. A hogan can be round, cone-shaped, multi-sided, or squ ...

and gives his son the rattlesnake toy he fashioned earlier. Chato resumes his life breaking horses during the day. The posse discovers his home, and Elias, Earl, Hall and Lansing brutally gang-rape Chato's wife, and then hogtie her naked outside the hogan as bait to lead Chato into a trap. Chato devises a plan with his full-Apache kinsman, who creates a diversion allowing Chato to rescue his wife. Chato's kinsman is wounded and the posse hang him upside down and burn him alive. Whitmore, disgusted, shoots the burning man in the head. Chato abandons European dress and dons native moccasins and loin cloth. He lures the posse members into individual traps, starting with Earl Hooker, who is fixated on Chato's wife. Finding Earl's dead body staked out in the desert, the posse grows more fractious, and they begin to turn on one another. When two of the posse turn back, Elias kills one and chases the other, but both are killed by Chato. Jubal kills Whitmore when he objects, inciting the last two members of the posse, Malechie and Logan, to beat Jubal to death with rocks. The two ride home, but Chato kills Malechie and allows Logan to flee without supplies, alone and horseless, deeper into Apache territory as Chato watches impassively from his horse.

Cast

Production

Filming

The film was shot in Almeria, Spain, in 1971.

Music

Soundtrack

A CD of the film's soundtrack was released on January 15, 2008, by Intrada Records (Intrada Special Collection Vol. 58).

Track listing

* 1. Titles - 4:41 * 2. Peeping Tom in the Bushes - 0:44 * 3. Mind Your Ma; Whiskey and Hot Sun - 1:29 * 4. Coop Falls - 1:24 * 5. Pain in the Water Bags; Burning Rancheros - 1 & 2 4:47 * 6. Peeping Tom on the Ridge; First Stampede - 3:04 * 7. Indian Convention - 1:35 * 8. The Snake Bite - 1:21 * 9. Chato Comes Home - 1:52 * 10. Indian Rodeo; Chato Bags Horse - 2:21 * 11. Junior Blows the Whistle - 0:42 * 12. Fire and Stampede; Joan of Arc at Stake - 3:54 * 13. Mr. & Mrs. Chato Split; Massas in the Cold, Cold Ground - 1:26 * 14. Hot Pants - 2:46 * 15. Rainbow on the Range - 0:58 * 16. Ride Like Hell - 0:50 * 17. Big Stare Job; Here-There-Everywhere - 2:19 * 18. Attack in Gorge - 1:53 * 19. One Big Pain in the Neck - 2:35 * 20. Lansing Scalped - 1:46 * 21. Elias Gets the Snake; Malechie Gets Shot; Finis - 5:06

Release

Home media

It was released on Region One DVD in 2001 and on Region Two in 2004.

Reception

Critical response

When released,

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who was the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in 2000. ...

panned the film, calling it a "...long, idiotic revenge Western...It was directed by Michael Winner in some lovely landscapes near Almeria,

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. Just about everybody gets shot or knifed, and one man dies after Chato lassos him with a live rattlesnake." ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...

'', echoing Canby, wrote, "A great cast is primarily wasted in this gory, below-average, and overlong film. The script could have been written for a silent film to fit with Bronson's traditional man-of-few-words image (in fact, more grunts and squint than words)...As usual, Bronson must rely upon the conviction that there are viewers who find silence eloquent." A more recent '' Film4'' review was more positive, observing that ''Chato's Land'' "...though no masterpiece, is an effective and frequently disturbing piece of filmmaking. A tough, cynical Western with well-paced direction and a fine performance from Charles Bronson and the cast of vagabonds out to get him. A quality film from Michael Winner."

1970s political overtones

Film critic Graeme Clark discussed a political theme of the film when it was released in the early 1970s, writing, "There are those who view this film as an allegory of the United States' presence in

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

, which was contemporary to this storyline, but perhaps that is giving the filmmakers too much credit. Granted, there is the theme of the white men intruding on a land where they are frequently under fire, and ending up humiliated as a result, but when this was made it was not entirely clear that America would be on the losing side as the conflict may have been winding down, but was by no means over." ''Film4'' is more assertive in their review, "The cruelty of the posse is well conveyed by an able (and supremely ugly) group of actors headed up by Jack Palance and Simon Oakland. Some of their acts, such as the brutal rape of Chato's wife and the burning of an Indian village, have an unpleasant edge which Winner does not shy away from. Parallels with the contemporary situation in Vietnam can't have been lost on the original audience.''Film4''
web site. Last accessed: May 3, 2011.

References

External links

* *
John Landis on ''Chato's Land''
at Trailers from Hell *
''Chato's Land''
at The Spaghetti Western Database {{Michael Winner 1972 films 1972 Western (genre) films American Western (genre) films British Western (genre) films 1970s English-language films Films about Native Americans Films directed by Michael Winner Films scored by Jerry Fielding Films shot in Almería United Artists films Revisionist Western (genre) films Films produced by Michael Winner 1970s American films 1970s British films Apache in popular culture Scimitar Films films English-language Western (genre) films