Chato's Land

The half-Apache Chato is racially abused in a bar by the sheriff. He shoots the sheriff dead in self-defense and rides out of town on his Paso Fino. Former Confederate Captain Quincey Whitmore dons his uniform and gathers a posse of former Confederate soldiers and sympathizers. Chato, staying one step ahead, fires on the posse from a hilltop, drawing them into a difficult ascent while he descends the other side and scatters their horses. He kills a rattlesnake and wraps the rattle in the snake's skin. Tensions begin to create divisions within the posse. They come across a set of empty wickiups and gleefully burn them.

Chato greets his wife at their hogan and gives his son the rattlesnake toy he fashioned earlier. Chato resumes his life breaking horses during the day. The posse discovers his home, and Elias, Earl, Hall and Lansing brutally gang-rape Chato's wife, and then hogtie her naked outside the hogan as bait to lead Chato into a trap. Chato devises a plan with his full-Apache kinsman, who creates a diversion allowing Chato to rescue his wife. Chato's kinsman is wounded and the posse hang him upside down and burn him alive. Whitmore, disgusted, shoots the burning man in the head.

Chato abandons European dress and dons native moccasins and loin cloth. He lures the posse members into individual traps, starting with Earl Hooker, who is fixated on Chato's wife. Finding Earl's dead body staked out in the desert, the posse grows more fractious, and they begin to turn on one another. When two of the posse turn back, Elias kills one and chases the other, but both are killed by Chato. Jubal kills Whitmore when he objects, inciting the last two members of the posse, Malechie and Logan, to beat Jubal to death with rocks. The two ride home, but Chato kills Malechie and allows Logan to flee without supplies, alone and horseless, deeper into Apache territory as Chato watches impassively from his horse.

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• Charles Bronson as Pardon Chato
• Jack Palance as Captain Quincey Whitmore
• James Whitmore as Joshua Everette
• Simon Oakland as Jubal Hooker
• Richard Basehart as Nye Buell
• Ralph Waite as Elias Hooker
• Richard Jordan as Earl Hooker
• Victor French as Martin Hall
• Sonia Rangan as Chato's wife

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• William Watson as Harvey Lansing
• Roddy McMillan as Gavin Malechie
• Paul Young as Brady Logan
• Lee Patterson as George Dunn
• Peter Dyneley as Ezra Meade
• Hugh McDermott as Bartender
• Raúl Castro as Mexican scout
• Verna Harvey as Shelby Hooker

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The film was shot in Almeria, Spain, in 1971.A Guessing Game With Frank Sinatra.

Los Angeles Times 14 June 1971: e20.

A CD of the film's soundtrack was released on January 15, 2008, by Intrada Records (Intrada Special Collection Vol. 58).[http://www.soundtrack.net/albums/database/?id=4780&page=review SoundtrackNet] web site. Last accessed: February 17, 2011.

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• 1. Titles - 4:41
• 2. Peeping Tom in the Bushes - 0:44
• 3. Mind Your Ma; Whiskey and Hot Sun - 1:29
• 4. Coop Falls - 1:24
• 5. Pain in the Water Bags; Burning Rancheros - 1 & 2 4:47
• 6. Peeping Tom on the Ridge; First Stampede - 3:04
• 7. Indian Convention - 1:35
• 8. The Snake Bite - 1:21
• 9. Chato Comes Home - 1:52
• 10. Indian Rodeo; Chato Bags Horse - 2:21
• 11. Junior Blows the Whistle - 0:42

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• 12. Fire and Stampede; Joan of Arc at Stake - 3:54
• 13. Mr. & Mrs. Chato Split; Massas in the Cold, Cold Ground - 1:26
• 14. Hot Pants - 2:46
• 15. Rainbow on the Range - 0:58
• 16. Ride Like Hell - 0:50
• 17. Big Stare Job; Here-There-Everywhere - 2:19
• 18. Attack in Gorge - 1:53
• 19. One Big Pain in the Neck - 2:35
• 20. Lansing Scalped - 1:46
• 21. Elias Gets the Snake; Malechie Gets Shot; Finis - 5:06

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It was released on Region One DVD in 2001Chato's Land at Amazon.com. and on Region Two in 2004.Chato's Land at Amazon.com.

When released, Vincent Canby panned the film, calling it a "...long, idiotic revenge Western...It was directed by Michael Winner in some lovely landscapes near Almeria, Spain. Just about everybody gets shot or knifed, and one man dies after Chato lassos him with a live rattlesnake."[https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9B01E5DD1F3EE63BBC4053DFB0668389669EDE Canby, Vincent]. The New York Times, film review, June 8, 1972. Last accessed: May 3, 2011.

TV Guide, echoing Canby, wrote, "A great cast is primarily wasted in this gory, below-average, and overlong film. The script could have been written for a silent film to fit with Bronson's traditional man-of-few-words image (in fact, more grunts and squint than words)...As usual, Bronson must rely upon the conviction that there are viewers who find silence eloquent."[http://movies.tvguide.com/chatos-land/review/110704 TV Guide] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120531220101/http://movies.tvguide.com/chatos-land/review/110704 |date=2012-05-31 }}, film review. Last accessed: May 3, 2011.

A more recent Film4 review was more positive, observing that Chato's Land "...though no masterpiece, is an effective and frequently disturbing piece of filmmaking. A tough, cynical Western with well-paced direction and a fine performance from Charles Bronson and the cast of vagabonds out to get him. A quality film from Michael Winner."[http://www.film4.com/reviews/1971/chatos-land Film4] web site. Last accessed: May 3, 2011.

Film critic Graeme Clark discussed a 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."[http://www.thespinningimage.co.uk/cultfilms/displaycultfilm.asp?reviewid=3493&aff=13 Graeme Clark]. The Spinning Image, film review. Last accessed: May 3, 2011.

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.[http://www.film4.com/reviews/1971/chatos-land Film4] web site. Last accessed: May 3, 2011.

• List of American films of 1972

{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

• {{IMDb title|0066907|Chato's Land}}
• {{TCMDb title|id=70708}}
• [http://trailersfromhell.com/chatos-land/ John Landis on Chato's Land] at Trailers from Hell
• {{rotten-tomatoes|chatos_land}}
• [http://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Chato%27s_Land Chato's Land] at The Spaghetti Western Database

{{Michael Winner}}

Category:1972 films

Category:1972 Western (genre) films

Category:American Western (genre) films

Category:British Western (genre) films

Category:1970s English-language films

Category:Films about Native Americans

Category:Films directed by Michael Winner

Category:Films scored by Jerry Fielding

Category:Films shot in Almería

Category:United Artists films

Category:Revisionist Western (genre) films

Category:Films produced by Michael Winner

Category:1970s American films

Category:1970s British films

Category:Apache in popular culture

Category:Scimitar Films films

Category:English-language Western (genre) films