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 theoOn 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