Strong and Moving!

Absolutely Fantastic

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

What we have here is a generally compelling, viscerally effective Western drama, the first of six teamings between actor Charles Bronson and filmmaker Michael Winner. Written by Gerald Wilson, it spins the yarn of Pardon Chato (Bronson), a half-Apache man who guns down a bigoted sheriff in self defense. A character named Quincey Whitmore (a rock solid Jack Palance) gets together a fairly large posse to hunt Chato down, but they are led into forbidding territory where their quarry seems to hold all the cards.Fear, ignorance, lust, and hatred rear their ugly heads in "Chato's Land", as good as any an examination of the poor attitudes that white men harbored towards Indians. Quincey is a lone dissenting voice; even while taking the mission seriously, he at least has respect for, and some understanding of, the man his team is hunting. Unfortunately, among this group we have the Hooker family, consisting of a horny creep, Earl (Richard Jordan), and a thoroughly racist heel (Simon Oakland), who ends up wanting revenge.Winner assembles here a very fine male ensemble (the kind of thing that Walter Hill would end up doing so well several years later), one in which women have not much of a role to play. (Sadly, the one woman who does, Chato's girl (Sonia Rangan), is molested and left tied up in the nude to serve as bait.) The cast features very reliable stars and character actors. Bronson offers one of his most stoic and mystical roles. He has VERY little dialogue to utter. Palance and Oakland are standouts; also co-starring are James Whitmore, Richard Basehart, Ralph Waite, Victor French, William Watson, Roddy McMillan, Paul Young, and Raul Castro.Excellent music by Jerry Fielding and vibrant photography also help to make this good entertainment. Be warned, however: it does get rather grim, racking up a large body count by the time it has finished.Seven out of 10.

The storyline to Chato's Land is simple as can be. A half-breed Indian is harassed by a redneck sheriff while having a drink in a bar. He is forced to kill the racist and is then pursued out into his desert homeland by a posse hell bent on retribution. Very little time is spent on setting the scene; the basic set-up is underway in less than five minutes. The director is Michael Winner, who it's probably fair to say is famous for having a somewhat sledgehammer approach to film-making. His style is very unsubtle and his movies are often pretty tough, violent and unpolitically correct. You could almost view him as an English version of the Italian director Umberto Lenzi. As a result, his films are a lot of fun.This one is almost like a blueprint for Winner's later box office smash Death Wish in many ways. Both star Charles Bronson as a man whose wife has been raped by thugs and who chooses an eye for an eye style of violent retribution to put matters right. You could also definitely say that Chato's Land also fits into the revisionist western category too – although admittedly with a healthy slice of exploitation content added in for good measure – as it can quite easily be read as another early 70's Vietnam allegory. American might and arrogance comes a cropper against a less well equipped enemy. The invaders have far more gun power but they fail to take into account the environment they enter – the land understood perfectly by the enemy they seek. They commit various atrocities along the way such as setting a village on fire and then finally rape and murder. So there are underlying themes in this one but you don't really need to know any of this historical context to enjoy it because this works just great as a western with plenty of violent action.It's not immediately obvious but this is a Euro Western. It was shot in Spain but with British money. As a result it's maybe no surprise that it resembles the Italian spaghetti westerns in some ways with its amoral characters and violence. Charles Bronson is the star name in the title role. He looks and acts the part just fine but he has virtually no dialogue and the main focus is squarely on the squabbling posse led by Jack Palance. Chato is always on the periphery, which works well as we never know when he will strike. He begins by toying with his pursuers, leading them on a dance but he changes tack after the rape of his wife and murder of his son and seeks bloody revenge. The posse are, therefore, a very unsympathetic group. But they aren't all one dimensionally evil – there are the bad-bad guys but also the good-bad guys. There are a lot of grey areas and the motivation behind each man varies quite a bit. And the order in which they are bumped off is not in the least predictable either.Chato's Land is a pretty straightforward and enjoyable revenge western though. It's sometimes a little rough around the edges it has to be admitted. Occasionally it appears to have been edited with a hacksaw – for instance there is no build up whatsoever to the sudden arrival of the cowboys at Chato's family home – but this isn't really that much of an issue overall and in some ways adds to the raw feel of the movie. It's a film I have seen several times over the years and I always find it to be pretty successful and satisfying.

Chato's land has a very dark and violent tone. After an altercation in the city, the Apache Chato leads his white pursuers on his land, where the violent manhunt take place.A simple storyline well realized with a tone very specific to this particular early 70s and serves perfectly the darkness of history. The narrative is reinforced by interesting reflections on the Civil War, racism, attitudes, and various relations to things and nature.Charles Bronson always a great North American native. Jack Palance and his partners are very persuasive. A major element screenplay unexpected, a very good end ... a good movie, do not hesitate to reserve one hour and thirty-six minutes to watch and enjoy Chato's Land.jeliosjelios@hotmail.fr

A posse, led by a former Confederate soldier, Captain Quincey Whitmore(Jack Palance) decide to head out to find an "Injun" responsible for the murder of a no-good sheriff, the hunted(or, more appropriately, the hunter) an Apache named Chato(Charles Bronson). Listen to this fabulous cast of recognizable veteran character actors which accompany Whitmore on this journey..Simon Oakland, Ralph Waite, Richard Jordan, James Whitmore, Victor French and Richard Basehart. Other actors tagging along are William Watson, Paul Young, and Roddy McMillan.Jubal Hooker(Oakland)decides he and his boys, Elias and Earl(Waite and Jordan), will tag along to find that half-Apache, relishing the thought of hanging an Injun. Racists them all, pretty rough around the edges and foul in demeanor and attitude. Earl keeps his mind of the ladies while always having to start up something with the posse's Mexican scout. When members of the posse(mainly Elias and Earl)find Chato's home, his squaw inside, they rape and molest her, leaving the woman's naked body tied out in the open as bait for her mate. This act, along with the eventual murder of Chato's Apache comrade(who helps tend to his home), hanging him upside down, setting his body on fire, will be the posse's downfall. You see, for most of the film before this act, Chato was just tormenting and teasing them. He'd shoot some of their horses, or stab open their water bags. But, when they resort to violence in order to draw him out, Chato will respond in kind. We watch as Jubal and Elias become tyrannical in their desire to find and kill Chato, after Earl goes out looking for the squaw saved by her mate, getting himself mutilated for his heinous actions regarding the rape for which he was an active, enthusiastic participant..when Quincey speaks of turning back when catching Chato seems futile, the Hookers pull a gun on him, shooting down two who attempt to leave in cold blood. The rape of Chato's squaw and murder of his friend sealed their fates.As impressively shot by cinematographer Robert Paynter(a veteran director of photography, he shot many of Winner's early work, including THE MECHANIC), the sun downs are particularly awe-inspiringly beautiful, while the days look unforgiving and treacherous, land which seemed to have been forgotten by God, only Chato, it seems, could live on it. We see that the white man can not survive on this land, never at any point one step ahead of Chato, truly at his mercy. And, that's really the point, these men start out with great confidence, their heads held high, believing that Chato will be caught by nightfall, further following the half-breed into the sunbaked abyss. We see that this posse begin to tear at one another, their camaraderie and swagger deteriorating the longer they remain in pursuit of Chato, doubt and fear starting to flower. Especially disconcerting for them is how Chato picks them off systematically, not in a hurry, gallantly riding his horse, mostly overhead peering down at the posse, using his surroundings as a tool against the group, wiser and more restrained. Not halting the rape, in my mind, costs the entire group, even if some of the posse didn't participate in the act..in allowing it to continue, each is just as guilty and must pay with their life. I was a bit disappointed we never get to see Chato and Quincey(or Chato and Jubal, for that matter)face off, but even if they had, we know what the outcome would've been. Once Earl was found with his crotch destroyed by fire, Jubal would not allow this to go unabated, and his mania is the upending of the posse's efforts. As is often the case, when things don't go according to plan, usually dissension and friction develop until members of the posse are at each other's throats. This is not the traditional western many grew up watching, it casts white man in a negative light while the Apache is presented as smart, brave, and ingenious in his cunning. Using the Hookers as an example, we see white man as the savages instead of the "Injuns" often depicted as such.