Chato’s Land - An Ugly Western

Nov

13

Chato’s Land - An Ugly Western

≡ Category: Movie Reviews, Not Worth Your Time, United States, Western |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

Country: United States
Genre: Western
Director: Michael Winner
Year: 1971

Rating:

NOT WORTH YOUR TIME

Hmmm. Charles Bronson, the star of Death Wish, The Stone Killer, Breakout, Mr. Majestyk, The Evil That Men Do, Hard Times, etc. Michael Winner, director of Death Wish, The Stone Killer, and The Mechanic, all of which starred Bronson. If I were a betting man, it would seem that Chato’s Land, another collaboration between these two, should be entertaining, at the very least.

No such luck.

The plot of Chato’s Land could not be simpler. Within two minutes, Chato (Charles Bronson) has shot a lawman in self defense. You see, half-breed Chato was drinking in a white man’s bar and that couldn’t be tolerated.

A posse is quickly assembled. Most of these men are racists, eager to see an Indian hanged. They’re also incompetent, ranging from downright stupid to merely distracted. Captain Quincey Whitmore (Jack Palance) is the least moronic of the bunch. A former Confederate Army officer, he’s learned a thing or two about defeat. He respects the enemy and is willing to cut his losses at a certain point. He represents the rule of law. On the other hand, Jubal Hooker (Simon Oakland) is just filled with hate. He’s even willing to summarily execute anyone who deserts the posse.

At first Chato merely tries to get the posse to see reason by shooting their horses and making off with their supplies while the men are sleeping. But after the posse becomes lawless itself, Chato goes into vengeance mode.

There’s some inherent interest in Bronson picking off the posse one by one, and director Michael Winner is appropriately mean-spirited in terms of the violence. If you enjoy Winner’s take on violence, you may want to pick up a foreign version of Chato’s Land. According to a review on the Internet Movie Database (IMDB.com), the French version of Chato’s Land is more bloody and sexually explicit.

The other point of interest is the implicit cultural critique of the emergence of the rule of law in America. Quincey represents the rule of law, but it’s only a veneer. Ultimately, Jubal, a seething cauldron of racism and hatred, is revealed to be the true leader of the posse. In other words, in the United States, the rule of law is often only the public face of barbarism.

But I’m making Chato’s Land sound far more coherent than it actually is. The script by Gerald Wilson has some terrible dialog and meanders more than it should. The violent scenes are clunkily directed by Winner and don’t have the punch they should. Lastly, I’ve never seen an uglier Western. Westerns are notable for gorgeous vistas. There’s no visual pleasure to be had in Chato’s Land.

Under the circumstances, the talented cast is largely wasted. In addition to Palance, Bronson, and Simon Oakland, we’ve got James Whitmore, Ralph Waite, and Richard Jordan on hand. An amusing note: Ralph Waite usually played scumbags in the movies, and he’s really good at it, but in the early 70s, when Chato’s Land was filmed, he was starring as the wholesome patriarch of the Waltons on TV.

There’s nothing remotely wholesome about Chato’s Land. But if you’re going to make a Western this mean-spirited, it should at least be entertaining. Chato’s Land just isn’t a whole lot of fun, which is completely the fault of director Michael Winner and screenwriter Gerald Wilson. A major disappointment.

To see how far Chato’s Land falls short, compare it to Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch, released a couple of years earlier.