Taglines: The scream of his victims is the only sound he makes.
Chato’s Land movie storyline. After a deadly confrontation with the racist local sheriff in the town’s whites-only bar, the half-Apache, Pardon Chato, flees into the unforgiving desert. Hell-bent on making Chato pay, the famed former Confederate officer, Captain Quincey Whitmore, assembles an angry posse of blood-thirsty men; however, who is the hunter, and who is the hunted? Do Whitmore’s toughs stand a chance of surviving in Chato’s dangerous land?
Chato’s Land is a 1972 western Technicolor film directed by Michael Winner, starring Charles Bronson, Jack Palance, James Whitmore, Simon Oakland, Richard Basehart, Ralph Waite, Richard Jordan, Victor French, Sonia Rangan, William Watson, Roddy McMillan. The film was released on May 25, 1972 in the United States.
The film can be classified in the revisionist Western genre, which was at its height at the time, with a dramatising of racism and oblique referencing of the Vietnam war. The original screenplay was written by Gerry Wilson.
Chato’s Land and 1970s political overtones
Film critic Graeme Clark discussed an often discussed contemporary 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, 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.
Chato’s Land (1972)
Directed by: Michael Winner
Starring: Charles Bronson, Jack Palance, James Whitmore, Simon Oakland, Richard Basehart, Ralph Waite, Richard Jordan, Victor French, Sonia Rangan, William Watson, Roddy McMillan
Screenplay by: Gerald Wilson
Production Design by: Clifton Brandon
Cinematography by: Robert Paynter
Film Editing by: Michael Winner
Art Direction by: Manolo Mampaso
Music by: Jerry Fielding
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: United Artists
Release Date: May 25, 1972 (United States)
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