Chato's Land

A man of Apache blood kills a sheriff in what would count as self-defence, and the town comes after him. As the pursuit goes on, the pursuers are defeated by the desert, the heat and each other. The film is not interested in the man being chased. It is interested in the men chasing him: Chato is barely on screen, and the film looks almost entirely at the rot inside the posse. They build a hierarchy among themselves, blame one another, and in the end all they have left is racist rage. The form is hard and dirty: in keeping with the seventies western there is no heroism, the landscape is not beautiful and the violence is sudden. Michael Winner directed; it was shot in Spain. Charles Bronson plays Chato and hardly speaks; the weight is carried by Jack Palance as the leader of the posse, a former Confederate officer. James Whitmore and Richard Basehart are also in the group. Who it is for: viewers interested in late westerns and in the genre criticising its own racism. Who it is not for: anyone who wants to bond with a protagonist. The film keeps its distance from everyone and the violence in the last act is severe.