Review: Chato’s Land


Set just after the Civil War, Jack Palance leads a blood-thirsty posse going after half-breed Charles Bronson, who killed a popular lawman in self-defence. Naturally, this is easier said than done (It is Charles Bronson we’re talking about after all). Also among the posse is veteran James Whitmore as an Injun-hating old-timer, who nevertheless isn’t as blood-thirsty as some of the others in the posse. Roddy McMillan plays a British family man who also joins the posse, but seems to have a decent-enough head on his shoulders. Palance, meanwhile, looks as though he’s unsure as to how the hell he feels as the situation gets worse and worse, and the less scrupulous of the men (chiefly the usual suspects Richard Jordan and Ralph Waite) rape Bronson’s wife, setting Bronson right off, “Death Wish”-style.



A surprisingly uninvolving (given cast and story), excruciatingly drawn-out 1972 film from filmmaker Michael Winner (“Death Wish”, “Lawman”, “Scorpio”). It’s supposedly a Western chase film, but Bronson seems to just be waiting around for the other guys to catch up to him, hardly a chase, and every few minutes or so it appears that these guys have a break and talk. And talk. And talk. Before long, you just won’t care whether they get the guy or if he blows them all away. The cast is excellent (Especially Jordan, Waite, the underrated Whitmore, and McMillan), but the film’s stance on the non-Injun characters remains hazy. Were these guys meant to be Heroes? Villains? Neither? Both? Palance’s character is especially murky). Meanwhile, the Vietnam-subtext doesn’t quite work, I’m afraid (Including once again Palance’s character, but also a definite My-Lai Massacre moment, featuring a little brutality and nudity). Still, it earns points for a bit of ambitiousness for a Winner film.



Even the least demanding of viewers are better off watching Winner’s vastly superior “Lawman” (co-starring Jordan, Waite, and William Watson in essentially the same roles). The screenplay is by Winner regular Gerald Wilson (“Lawman”, “Scorpio”, and the dreadful “The Stone Killer”), who must’ve dozed off before writing an ending, and woke up the next morning forgetting about the whole thing. This just doesn’t cut it, I’m afraid.



Rating: C

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