Review of Chato's Land (1972) by Kevin M. W — 10 Mar 2013
Directed by Michael Winner (alarm bells ringing), he went to Hollywood in the 1970's, after finding some success here, after tackling the western genre with Lawman (1971), he tried it again with this violent western written by Gerald Wilson, who wrote Lawman.
It's not perfect, but Winner proved to be a dab hand at doing westerns. It's a shame he did this as the western genre was starting to die out then. Half-Apache Pardon Chato (Charles Bronson) is wanted for the murder of a U.
S. Marshall, although it was in self-defense. So, a posse go out to hunt for him, led by Captain Quincey Whitmore (Jack Palance), which means going deep into Indian territory. But, Chato is ready to fight back, and sabotages their water supply, and even makes their horses run away.
Whitmore and his men have had enough, and they capture Chato's wife (Sonia Rangan), and assault and rape her, which is the last straw for Chato, who just wants peace, and so he turns on the posse, picking them off one by one, in the hope that they'll leave him alone.
You can see where Winner and Bronson got the motivation to make Death Wish (1974) from, it was filmed in Spain, where Leone's Spaghetti westerns were made, and the landscape adds to the film's dark mood, but Winner, for once, has made a watchable film with this one.
This review of Chato's Land (1972) was written by Kevin M. W on 10 Mar 2013.
Chato's Land has generally received positive reviews.
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