{"id":13734,"date":"2016-06-14T15:05:14","date_gmt":"2016-06-14T19:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=13734"},"modified":"2016-06-14T15:05:14","modified_gmt":"2016-06-14T19:05:14","slug":"br-chatos-land-1972","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=13734","title":{"rendered":"BR: Chato\u2019s Land (1972)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ChatosLand_BR\"Film<\/strong>: \u00a0Very Good<\/p>\n

Transfer<\/strong>: \u00a0Excellent<\/p>\n

Extras<\/strong>:\u00a0Good<\/p>\n

Label:\u00a0<\/strong>Twilight Time<\/p>\n

Region:<\/strong>\u00a0All<\/p>\n

Released:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0April 12, 2016<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Western<\/p>\n

Synopsis:<\/strong>\u00a0After killing a sheriff in self-defense, a half-Apache warrior draws a malevolent, murderous posses into the badlands where few will emerge alive.<\/p>\n

Special Features:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Isolated Stereo Music Track \/ Screenwriter Gerald Wilson on “Chato’s Land” (17:49) \/ Theatrical Trailer \/ 8-page colour booklet with liner notes by film historian Julie Kirgo \/ Limited to 3000 copies \/ Available exclusively from www.twilighttimemovies.com<\/a> \u00a0and Screen Archives Entertainment<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Review:<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Written by Michael Winner\u2019s frequent scribe, Gerald Wilson\u2019s minimalist western is a strange rumination on racism, with a posse comprised of a post-Civil War captain, assorted thugs, a butcher, gleeful hard-drinking adventurers, and the amoral Hooker brothers hunting half-Apache Chato for killing the local sheriff in an armpit town.<\/p>\n

Their trek extends into nasty badlands terrain, the kind of world one of the characters describes as a chunk of land of which God gave up for being inhospitable and unworkable for living and farming. Only the Apache, described by the racist thugs as an emotionless wolf-dog mongrel \/ killing machine, would claim such turf as their own.<\/p>\n

Whether designed as a message picture against racist attitudes and horrific treatment of Native Americans or a veiled stalking thriller, Chato\u2019s Land<\/strong> could\u2019ve been an outright flop \u2013 a British director known for his\u00a0indelicate approach to any subject matter, and a minimalist white actor cast as Chato \u2013 but perhaps because the story\u2019s been stripped down so severely, its simplicity ensures Charles Bronson (buffed to the max like a street fighter) conveys anger, revenge, and moments of satisfaction through his patented staid expression, and the rogues hunting down “the breed” are just violent archetypes deserving of relatively fast deaths.<\/p>\n

The dialogue among the rogues is consistently inflammatory \u2013 the Apache are less than dirt \u2013 and one suspects Winner wanted the insults played up into a regular back-and-forth banter to justify the film\u2019s violence: being racists, the posse pick off Chato\u2019s friend, and while still breathing, string himup by the feet atop the corral entrance, and burn him alive; and being horny bastards, they naturally take turns raping Chato\u2019s wife with the kind of glee typical of a Eurotrash shocker than a studio-distributed star vehicle.<\/p>\n

Women in Winner\u2019s oeuvre rarely fare well, and one can argue his seventies output is peppered with more than a few thrillers in which women have clothes ripped open for no other reason than to expose breasts and be ravaged (as occurs after the Main Titles, introduces the Hooker brothers) or brutalized.<\/p>\n

Winner\u2019s knack for creating volatile scenes to elicit audience outrage may be one of his best skills and most controversial, but in Chato\u2019s Land<\/strong> there\u2019s little evidence of the director sharing any sympathy for his female characters \u2013 they\u2019re just a cut above extras, used as tools by film villains and the director \u2013 which makes the film as some kind of pro-Native American rights statement questionable. It\u2019s still a slickly made production \u2013 and one of Winner\u2019s better directed works \u2013 but it\u2019s his editorializing that lends the film an exploitive tenor.<\/p>\n

Twilight Time’s Blu-ray also includes a decent interview with Wilson, who describes his script as a deliberate Vietnam parable in which a well-armed group of Americans succumb to the trappings of an alien landscape, and are no match for indigenous people. The Americans eventually fight among each other, seeding their own destruction after having deluded themselves into thinking their little war could be won within a matter of days – an allusion to both the Vietnam War and, unintentionally, the Gulf Wars where might was supposed to rout out despots and bring everlasting democracy.<\/p>\n

Wilson also states he had more than a hand in the film’s casting, and nixing some of Winner’s creative idea if they strayed too far from the script’s original design, and although the rape of Chato’s wife was always in the script, its vivid rendering more than echoes the nasty assault that’s similarly central to the revenge in Death Wish <\/strong>(1974).<\/p>\n

However, as an example of Winner’s knack for action, Chato\u2019s Land<\/strong> is rather rewarding for the way he experimented in moving his camera in pre-Steadicam maneuvers to frequently crab around characters, and cut on action to get rid of any transitional footage. His approach is remarkably fluid (in a way, it echoes the roving camera-multiple edits of Tony Scott, as in Unstoppable<\/a><\/strong>), gliding into scenes, swirling around dialogue exchanges, and focusing solely on dramatic meat instead of holding on elegant compositions or montages.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an extraordinary image of the posse travelling atop a mounting range at dusk, while the cloud patterns are wisping upward like the Angel of Death\u2019s claw in Cecil B. DeMille\u2019s The Ten Commandments <\/strong>(1956). The stunning shot isn’t long enough to constitute a little David Lean homage because to Winner it\u2019s just another bolt in a scene\u2019s construction.<\/p>\n

The downside is obvious: much of Robert Paynter\u2019s gorgeous cinematography isn\u2019t given time to be relished by connoisseurs, but the editing (by Winner) is sometimes quite affecting \u2013 unusual for Winner, given his cutting of Firepower<\/strong> (1979) is rather amateurish. (Paynter would film most of the director\u2019s films, including Lawman<\/strong>, The Nightcomers<\/a><\/strong>, and The Mechanic<\/strong>, but also create memorable widescreen images for The Final Conflict<\/strong>, Curtains<\/a><\/strong>, and Spies Like Us<\/strong>.)<\/p>\n

Fans of classic Hollywood character actors will be shocked by the extraordinary actors plopped into small parts, much in the way Mackenna\u2019s Gold<\/strong> (1969) was larded from top-down with a superb cast: Jack Palance does plenty of scene-stealing business, but he underplays Capt. Quincey as a former Southern leader who soon realizes the scum he\u2019s encouraged to join his posses becomes its mindless, bloodthirsty leaders; Simon Oakland (Psycho<\/strong>, Dirty Harry<\/strong>) can\u2019t hold onto his version of a southern accent, but he\u2019s solid as the bully Jubal Hooker, while younger brother Elias (The Waltons<\/strong>\u2019 genial Ralph Waite) seems to enjoy watching brother Earl (Richard Jordan) stomp around in anger, threaten the Mexican tracker (Raoul Castro) at every turn, and be the most pro-active rapist among the posse.<\/p>\n

Also among the cast is James Whitmore as a friend of Quincey who will not<\/em> return home for dinner, Victor French (Little House on the Prairie<\/strong>) as a generic thug, and two Scots who quickly realize they\u2019ve joined an out-of-control bullet train of vigilantism \u2013 a favourite Winner theme. Richard Basehart is also around as an alcoholic who should\u2019ve done what two other posse members accomplished early into the hunt: leave and go home<\/em>.<\/p>\n

There is a fascinating mix of juvenile peer pressure that keeps the posse intact, and Wilson\u2019s script builds a nice arc to trace the power shifts that make it clear no one really survives this rotten endeavor. The script\u2019s also unique in putting the audience in a position that\u2019s more helpless than its characters: we\u2019re the only ones aware of Chato killing in self-defense, and are unable\u00a0to step forward and halt the mob that tasks themselves with rustic justice.<\/p>\n

Jerry Fielding\u2019s score gives the film a kind of moral credibility because it doesn\u2019t focus on gorgeous vistas, overt main themes, or offer any material to cover heroism or revenge: it\u2019s all subtext, undulating within scenes like natural sound effects in spite of being musically based. Fielding\u2019s gift for capturing character psychologies is even evident in this minimalist story, creating shadings where Winner is more fixated on visual rhythm and playing up horrors.<\/p>\n

Twilight Time’s series of Michael Winner productions include\u00a0Chato’s Land<\/strong> (1972),\u00a0The Mechanic<\/strong> (1972),\u00a0Scorpio<\/a><\/strong> (1973), and the upcoming\u00a0Lawman\u00a0<\/strong>(1971).<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2016 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

External References:<\/strong>
\nEditor’s Blog<\/a> — IMDB<\/a> \u00a0— \u00a0Soundtrack Album<\/a> —\u00a0Composer Filmography<\/a>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nVendor Search Links:<\/strong>
\nAmazon.ca<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Michael Winner\u2019s frequent scribe, Gerald Wilson\u2019s minimalist western is a strange rumination on racism, with a posse comprised of a post-Civil War captain, assorted thugs, a butcher, gleeful hard-drinking adventurers, and the amoral Hooker brothers hunting half-Apache Chato for killing the local sheriff in an armpit town…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[2201,4489,4490,4141,4491,4492],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-3zw","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13734"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13734"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13765,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13734\/revisions\/13765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}