Chatto's Land (1971)

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  • CHATTO'S LAND


    DIRECTED & WRITTEN BY MICHAEL WINNER
    SCIMITAR FILMS
    UNITED ARTISTS


    dukewayne.com/wcf/index.php?attachment/5592/


    INFORMATION FROM IMDb


    Plot Summary
    After Pardon Chato, a mestizo, kills a US marshal in self-defense, a posse pursues him, but as the white volunteers advance deep in Indian territory they become more prey than hunters, leading to internal strife.
    Written by KGF Vissers


    Cast
    Charles Bronson ... Pardon Chato
    Jack Palance ... Capt. Quincey Whitmore
    James Whitmore ... Joshua Everette
    Simon Oakland ... Jubal Hooker
    Ralph Waite ... Elias Hooker
    Richard Jordan ... Earl Hooker
    Victor French ... Martin Hall
    Sonia Rangan ... Chato's woman
    William Watson ... Harvey Lansing
    Roddy McMillan ... Gavin Malechie
    Paul Young ... Brady Logan
    Raul Castro ... Mexican scout
    Lee Patterson ... George Dunn
    Roland Brand Roland Brand
    Peter Dyneley ... Ezra Meade
    Hugh McDermott ... Bartender
    Celestino González ... (as Celestino Gonzalez)
    Florencio Amarilla
    Verna Harvey ... Shelby Hooker
    Sally Adez ... Moira Logan
    Clive Endersby ... Jacob Meade
    Rebecca Wilson ... Edna Malechie
    Luis Amarilla
    Richard Basehart ... Nye Buell
    and more...


    Directed
    Michael Winner


    Writing Credits
    Gerald Wilson


    Produced
    Michael Winner


    Music
    Jerry Fielding


    Cinematography
    Robert Paynter ... director of photography


    Trivia
    The Hooker ranch house and barn are the same as the McBain house and barn in Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).


    This film is one of Charles Bronson's 70s westerns. His westerns made during the 1970s include Valdez the Halfbreed (1973), Red Sun (1971), Chato's Land (1972), From Noon Till Three (1976), Breakheart Pass (1975) and The White Buffalo (1977).


    This is the first film out of six that Charles Bronson and Michael Winner made together.


    Michael Winner had wanted Gene Hackman for the Jack Palance part


    Charles Bronson speaks very little in this film, with only a few words of his dialogue being in English.


    Goofs
    Character error
    When Joshua Everette leaves the gang to seek medical help for his brMemorable Quotes he shifts his reins with the bad arm and then uses the reins in the bad arm to whip his horse.


    Continuity
    As Captain Whitmore walks down the street in the opening sequence, the direction of his shadow changes from behind him and to his right to in front of him and to his left.


    Revealing mistakes
    Several times as the posse rides through the desert, the saguaro cacti props in the background can be seen jiggling and flapping their arms in the wind.



    Memorable Quotes


    Filming Locations
    Tabernas, Almería, Andalucía, Spain
    Almería, Andalucía, Spain
    Balsicas de Alfaro, Rioja, Almería, Andalucía, Spain (Meade's Ranch)
    Cabo de Gata, Almería, Andalucía, Spain (Desert scenes)
    Desierto de Tabernas, Almería, Andalucía, Spain (Chato's land)
    Poblado Western 'Sergio Leone', Tabernas, Almería, Andalucía, Spain
    Fort Bravo Cinema Studios, Tabernas, Almería, Andalucía, Spain (Town)


    Watch the Movie


    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

  • Chato's Land is a 1972 western Technicolor film directed by
    Michael Winner, starring
    Charles Bronson and Jack Palance.
    It falls more closely into the revisionist Western genre, which was at its height at the time.
    The original screenplay was written by Gerry Wilson.


    Reception
    Critical response
    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."


    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."


    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."



    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."[4]


    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 squaw 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.



    User Review


    Fairly Good For A Winner Film
    15 September 2003 | by Theo Robertson (Isle Of Bute , Scotland)CHATO`S LAND was shown alongside DEATH WISH on BBC1 tonight as a tribute to the late Charles Bronson . To be honest this isn`t much of a tribute down to the simple fact that Bronson has very little dialogue and only a few scenes in a film that concentrates more on the posse than their pray . A far better tribute would have been that Bronson movie that contains the classic line " Put down those melons "

    Quote from theo

    On its own merits CHATO`S LAND is a fairly entertaining and intelligent film featuring a ( White ) posse on the trail of an ( Apache ) fugitive . It`s one of those Vietnam allegories as seen in TOO LATE THE HERO , ULZANA`S RAID and THE CRAZIES . Don`t believe me ? , well check out the scenes with the Mexican being the surrogate South Vietnamese and Ezra Meade a metaphor for the anti war movement and just to hit the audience over the head with the point there`s a sequence of a village being burned to the ground


    Michael Winner is hardly the greatest film maker who`s ever lived ( Check out the very obvious day for night filming ) but he does deserve some credit for casting someone who actually looks like an Indian in the title role and it`s not often you see a couple of Scottish characters in a western who give a very , very accurate description of rain soaked Greenock

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

    Edited once, last by ethanedwards ().