Chato’s Land (Michael Winner, 1972)

Spaghetti Westerns 🎬 Eurowestern & Hybrids
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[quote=“scherpschutter, post:1, topic:1171”]Cast: Charles Bronson, Jack Palance, Simon Oakland, James Whitmore, Richard Basehart, Ralph Waite, Richard Jordan, Raul Castro

Tough British-American western, filmed in Spain
No real spaghetti feel, despite the locations. In fact, with a chase at the heart of the story, The Wild Bunch seems to have served more as a model. Somehow First Blood also came to my mind (I checked it already: that was not a Michael Winner movie).

A half-breed Indian (Chuck) kills a sheriff in self-defense, but is chased afterwards by a lynch-hungry mob
The mob is led by a former Confederate officer (Palance), who knows something about indians, and slowly becomes aware of the fact that the people he’s travelling with are worse than the person they’re after. After the Indian’s wife is brutally raped and one of the rapists killed, the group members fall out, giving the Indian the chance to play them off against each other.

Some violence XL (rapist Waite ends up with roasted genitals), good atmosphere, occasionally sunspenseful, but not completely satisfying. Michael Winner is one of the most despised British directors, so it seems, and probably therefore turned to American genre movies like westerns and vigilante movies at a certain point in his career. I don’t think he was that bad as a director, but he wasn’t great either. Here his direction is uninspired, merely adequate, leaving it all to the actors. They’re first rate, of course, but cannot overcome the stereotyped characterizations.
To my surprise, Jerry Fielding’s score sounded a bit uninspired too.

still, worth a look.

3/5[/quote]He might have been so despised because he made the first movie to ever say FUCK in it. And Oral sex is implied. The dumbass vatican described it as felatio but it was a man giving it to a woman.

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[quote=“scherpschutter, post:6, topic:1171”]http://imageshack.us

I watched this DVD
I bought it yesterday (along with Man of the West, The Big Country and The Long Riders), it was on offer in a supermarket for 4,99 €

It runs 96 mins
According to Jim White (DVDTimes) it’s uncut, except for some horse-tripping
I had the idea some minor cuts were made, probably where originally the reels had to be changed
The XL violence scenes are uncut (naked woman, burning man)

Image quality is okay (a bit grainy, but no real problems), the Mono sound loud and clear[/quote]

I have the USA NTSC VHS copy of this one, it is heavily cut , i have not seen the DVD version yet.

However it was screened on UK TV 2 years ago, with the burning indian scene, the rock scene and i think all the horse trips are included but i’m not certain. The rape scene seems intact but i must take another look at it.

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BBFC

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/website/Classified.nsf/SearchClassifiedWorks/?SearchView&Query=(%20[Title]%20contains%20"CHATO’S")%20and%20((%20[TypeOfMedia]%20contains%20Film)%20OR%20(%20[TypeOfMedia]%20contains%20Video)%20OR%20(%20[TypeOfMedia]%20contains%20DigitalMedia))&SearchMax=50

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Pretty straightforward western with the scenery and cinematography being the best thing about it. Can’t say I was blown away by this. The story tends to drag along too much, without too much happening. The plot is too linear and has very few surprises. Bronson was well cast though. The reason behind the little war he fights out makes it almost like Death Wish in the Wild West.

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I enjoyed it, more to see Bronson do his thing than anything else. I think more could have been done with the gang eating itself up, things just seemed to degenerate in the last 20 minutes more than anything else. Well, maybe it would be too formulaic to systematically dispose of a posse member once every 7 minutes too. :wink:

What I will say is that you could really feel when Palance’s character started to lose his taste for the hunt and get a sense of who he was riding with. Well done, Jack!

Well I’ll give it my standard 3/5 stars and it’ll be on the re-watch list soon. I’m a big Bronson fan.

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This film was decent but not anything special for me. Very psychological, with the emphasis less on Bronson and more on the interactions between the posse out to get him.

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This remarkable western is by far the best of these British westerns.
Possibly Winner’s best film, which doesn’t mean that it wouldn’t have been possible to make a better, maybe a much better film out of this screenplay.

A perfect role for Bronson. His screentime is sparse and he says only one understandable line (in the first scene), but he dominates the film with his presence.

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Must have missed this post originally
Did you learn all these things in school?

By the way: if it’s a man giving it to a woman, it’s called cunnilingus, korano

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Propably as I learn it from my class mates!

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I read it and the writer must have used the wrong words.

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One of my favourite Winner / Bronson films. Bronson is perfect for this role.

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Because he has almost no dialogue? Oh I kid you Charlie. I’ve always appreciated your acting.

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One reason for sure. Always like the Palance character who lives in the past and such a change from his Spaghetti characters from around this period. I like the brothers who are obsessed with revenge and such a mixture of characters who form the posse. The film is often grim and brutal and as the Palance character says something to the effect in the film at one point …this is to my taste.

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I like the mood of this one. It’s a straight revenger with no secondary theatres being opened up.
It’s just like in a Greek tragedy, right from the start you know, how it’s going to end, and the characters themselves also know it.

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Good point.

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I always have to give a shout out for this one as it is one of my favorite Bronson films. As someone pointed out, Palance was also very good. As a western, I lked it better than the similar Valdez is Coming. Like A Man in the Wilderness, although not a revenge film per se, a man making his personal war is a similar theme. Chato , of course, is not spaghetti, but is a good revisionist western which, as a sub-genre, was influenced by the spaghetii.

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Does anyone have the German Blu-ray and can they confirm that the quality is better than the Twilight Time release?

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Just watched this one again. It still holds up as one of the best non-spagettis.

2 Likes
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This movie’s page in the database has been upgraded. Please provide feedback and … reviews or pictures especially.

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Looks great. we’re missing a review