Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Good concept, poorly executed.

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

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

CHUKA is a fun western for Rod Taylor, not one of the best of its type but solid enough as a piece of entertainment. The film is set within a fort occupied by the US army and laid to siege by a vengeful army of Indians. With little chance of rescue from outside, tempers fray within the walls and danger comes from inside as well as out.This kind of backdrop typically brims with suspense and so it proves here. Taylor was always one of my favourite stars of the decade and he plays the ultimate tough guy here with his tough-bitten, unsentimental turn. The film has better characterisation than you'd expect for the genre as well as solid action scenes and a surprisingly pessimistic feel. The violence has a harder edge than expected. It feels a little like THE ALAMO in places albeit a version made on a lower budget.John Mills has a fine role as the alcoholic colonel in charge of the fort's defences while Ernest Borgnine is a hard-as-nails sergeant. Borgnine's dragged-out fist-fight with Taylor is one of the great ones, up there with those featured in COOL HAND Luke and THEY LIVE. Louis Hayward is the old timer and James Whitmore has a good character part as a boozer. THUNDERBALL actress Luciana Paluzzi's red-haired beauty is a nice addition to the mix to boot.

This is a movie that constantly teeters on the brink of being awful, yet somehow continually proves itself to be interesting and entertaining. Here's what I liked:Rod Taylor pulls off the role of charismatic "pistolero" loner quite well.I don't know how plausible it is for a former British army officer to be commanding U.S. troops, but John Mills character adds a unique texture to the Western setting.The characters in the movie were very well developed in terms of complexity. Ernest Borgnine and James Whitmore provide excellent supporting acting.I liked the fact that a strong Mexican theme was introduced through the love interest. It was nice to see a Mexican aristocrat portrayed and not the usual ragged, barefoot street vendor/flunkie.Although the Indians were presented as stereotypical murderers threatening the heroes, they were given legitimate cause for their extreme actions.I enjoyed a couple of "super macho" scenes, one involving a extended fist fight between Taylor and Borgnine and the other involving an extended Tequila drinking bout by Taylor and Whitmore.A shout out to lovely Bond girl Luciana Paluzzi. She's very effective as a complex love interest for Taylor.Here's some things I didn't like:There's maybe too much time spent developing the back stories of the main characters. The movie needed more action oriented subplots, especially since it was told as a flashback i.e. We already knew the ending.I found the general pacing too slow, starting with Chuka's long pony ride through the snow at the beginning.Maybe the Arapahoes were starving, but Rod Taylor sure wasn't. Hard to imaging getting that pudgy wandering around the desert on a horse. You think the guy could have worked out a little for this part.I don't know how to shoot a pistol, but I'm sure Taylor's firing technique is extremely poor. Hard to believe he never misses.This was shot almost entirely on set. I like Westerns to have significant location shoots in the West, not in Burbank.The Burbank set itself was very cheap and the whole movie had a cartoonish feel. This was dissonant with its rather grim and violent plot.Was it necessary to reveal that Colonel Valois is no longer a "complete man" because he was sexually mutilated by natives in the Sudan? This was a bizarre non-sequitur introduced late in the movie.There is zero comic relief, at least intentional comic relief.

Sorry i could not resist the headline.This Western must have been made on the very cheap because everything seems to be made of balsa wood.Rod Taylor seems to have a six shooter which is as accurate as a snipers rifle and which fires 12 shots for every 6 rounds loaded.John Mills has a look which says"this will pay next years tax bill".What about poor Louis Hayward,i didn't even recognise him.It is little wonder that Westerns were on their way out with efforts like this.It has to be another in the pantheon of those films that are so bad that they are actually very enjoyable.So if it comes your way and you want a good laugh then watch this film

Chuka is an unusual and unsatisfying Western with a plot that several times reminds one of Beau Geste. It starts with the US Cavalry retrieving their comrades' bodies at a fort that has been overwhelmed by Indians and then flashes back to portray the events that led up to the massacre.John Mills usually plays a sympathetic character but as Colonel Valois he has no redeeming feature at all, even at the end he stands apparently helpless as his ragtag soldiers fight off the Indian attack. (One wonders why a colonel has such a small command, which seems to total barely 40 men, and the fort itself is small enough to fit conveniently into a studio.) It is hard to find much to like about most of the cast, but then the members are playing unlikeable people. Rod Taylor as the gunslinger Chaka shows his good side in the opening scenes when he offers his food to starving Indians but drives a hard bargain when his scouting expertise is needed. Louis Hayward, looking a bit like the British character actor Terry-Thomas, pays for the services of an Indian girl. Only Ernest Borgnine, appearing larger than one usually visualises him, makes much of a screen impact, and his character is one of the few who seems not to have an unfortunate past.The two Mexican ladies marooned at the post after rashly travelling across country in a stagecoach are an intrusion into the plot (but then I often groan at the contrived introduction of glamorous women into an environment that in real life would be all-male).All in all, a disappointing oddity.