Actually Ulzanaās Raid is not like that, and is in its treatment of the Apache wars very different from The Deserter.
While The Deserter could be called a racist film, Ulzanaās Raid is a film who tries to explain why the Apaches do what they do, the Apacheās cruelty is a reflection of a cultural loss, and I think the film has more sympathy for the Apaches then for the Whites.
I did not see any sympathy for Apaches in Ulzanaās Raid and I did not see it in Deserter either. Ulzanaās Raid is more psychological but in the end gives the same message about a hate. I would agree with the cultural loss reflection. Deserter does not kill the kid to show he is not the same as those murdering Apaches and in Ulzanaās Raid there are also few similar scenes. There is given some kind of Highlander like explanation for the cruelty in Ulzanaās Raid. Something like āit is a hard land, Apache needs to take power from a dying manā. So it is partly about survival but there are more atrocities commited by Apaches and are not connected to this (rapes, pointless torturing) so it does not really make a white man look any worse in any way. Interestingly in both movies are indian scouts who are on the USAās side.
I can partly see where you are coming from and I donāt agree with Stanton that the film is more pro-Apache than it is pro-white. However, I do think that the film tries to keep some balance. At the beginning of the film, we are introduced to the Indian agent who has been depriving the Apaches of their rations, showing that they have been victims of corruption on the reservations. Throughout the film, DeBuin is quick to forget about his Christian ethics. His hatred for Ulzana soon becomes a hatred for all Apaches, which results in the abuse and mistrust of the scout, Ke-Ni-Tay. At the end of the film, DeBuin is humbled as he salutes Ke-Ni-Tay after killing Ulzana.
Ulzanaās Raid is much more complex and I consider the film to be a response to two conflicting portrayals of the American Indian in cinema. It doesnāt deny their humanity and dismiss them as an obstacle to civilisation the way John Ford films did but it also rejects the conception of the Indian as a sort of proto-hippy, which had become a popular stereotype after the success of Little Big Man and has continued with Dances With Wolves.
Towards the end of the Apache Wars, more Apaches were fighting for the United States rather than against.
Cruelty was already embedded in Apache culture prior to the arrival of Europeans. In their wars with neighbouring tribes, they were both perpetrators and victims. John Cremony, a US army major who lived with and observed the Apaches during the 19th century, pointed out that children were taught to torture small animals in order to mentally prepare them for torturing other humans in adulthood. This was the reality of life for most American Indian tribes. They knew no other way and fought European newcomers the same way they had fought against each other since time immemorial.
I havenāt seen Ulzanaās Raid in a while, but I remember that I was surprised, not to say shocked, by the movieās approach to the material when I fist saw it in cinemaās, in the 1970s. It was called a reactionary film by many and I suppose I thought about it in similar terms. I wouldnāt call it a reactionary movie today, but itās most certainly not a liberal (American sense) one either. In fact I think it was a reaction to the all too liberal, clichĆ©-ridden approach to the so-called plight of the red man, who was presented as a pure and innocent victim of civilisation and progress. Sure, the Indian or Native Americans were victims, but not because they were pure, innocent or anything like it. They were, like so many people in history, in the wrong place, at the wrong moment, ready too defend themselves and chase the enemy, but not strong enough to do so. According to Dan Brown the Apaches had learned the art of torture from the Spanish Conquistadores, which is nonsense: Indian tribes, north and south of the border didnāt need the help of Spaniards or any other Europeans to be violent and cruel. But that is, of course, no excuse for the cruelties of the white man, and in the end Ulzanaās Raid tries to find a balance and also reflects on the cultural loss and the cruelty of history. I think Lancasterās character admits somewhere in the movie that āperhaps none of us is rightā (or anything similar).
Yes, he literally says in the movie that white men are no different to indians in the core. It is only the boundaries our society made that prevent white men doing the same things, in the movie represented by the young Davison who starts to hate indians as he sees what they did but he never betrays his roots. It almost seems Lancaster is more of a spectator to all of this or maybe just tired of it all. He never really judge anyone.
I just thought that I would share my VHS tapes of The Deserter. I have the UK and US releases. Both contain the uncut version unlike the DVDs available and the UK VHS has a completely different English dub. I am going to assume that it has Bekimās real voice. I havenāt heard this dub on any other version.
3 Likes
Can we just get a Uncut Blu-ray or DVD already!!!
1 Like
It would be nice if they include both dubs, as well. Until I acquired the UK VHS, I didnāt know that two English dubs existed.
I have an Australian VHS release of this. No idea which dub it has but would presume it would be the UK one.
Presumably itās only a different actor voicing Bekim Fehmiu ? Or are you saying John Houston, Richard Crenna, Ian Bannen, Chuck Connors etc are re-voiced ?
Only Bekimās voice was changed.
1 Like
Maybe this analogue only will be understood by some people, anyway: If when youāre going to eat an authentic Valencian paella you go to a typical restaurant on Malvarrosa beach but the ingredients are not of local origin, the paella is not cooked over wood fire and the cook is a renowned Thai chef with years of experience in Thai cuisine, is this a paella? Well, yes and no, because even if the recipe is followed to the letter, the non-spanish chef will give it his personal touch and in the end what we will eat is ārice with stuffā as the Valencians say.
Something like this happens with this film: there is an Italian component (not in vain it is an Italy-Yugoslavian-US co-production), a good part of it is shot in Almeria, the story has its violent moments and part of the shooting team is Italian, BUT the cast is mostly foreign (Richard Crenna, Woody Strode, the Yugoslav protagonist Bekim Fehmiu, John Huston!) and above all, it has Burt Kennedy as the main director, an American with some previous experience in the world of westerns (The War Wagon, Support Your Local Sheriff!, Return of the Magnificent Seven). So with these basis, we have something that, although itās ifluenced by the genre, is not exactly a spaghetti western, but more like a post-leone American western (Two Mules for Sister Sara, Ulzanaās Raid, Joe Kidd). Itās well directed with skill (I liked those nocturnal rides shoots) and has good moments of action, although without those clichĆ©s so typical of Eurowestern that give it its essence.
Itās a pretty much entertaining film, but in my opinion itās not a good example of the genre.
Itās not perfect ā¦ but a good release is very much sought.
Agree with both of these.
Havenāt seen it in a long time and mostly because I still only have it on an Australian VHS release from the 90s. Would really like to see it again in a proper modern release.
I saw an VHS-rip hahaha (yesterday). I couldnāt find it in a good release (not even in the big emule community).
There is a widescreen Spanish TV rip on you tube which claims to be a HD recording, but it has been uploaded at such low quality, itās barely watchable. 240p is not HD
This is the version I saw. Maybe itās better than a VHS copy, but not so muchā¦and the audio has so bad quality, I think it has been copied directly with a recorder or something like that because it sounds some kind of music in the background, very annoyingā¦
Yes, it is watchable without being of much interest.
For me it is clearly an US western, despite some European credits. Like the other 2 westerns Kennedy shot in Europe.
It is just another Dirty Dozen rip-off, and not a very inspired one, and Kennedyās was not a good director for action films, actually most of his better westerns were half-comedies.
Thatās actually an earlier upload, I know this one and the irritating audio, it was used for an English language fandub a few years ago ā¦ the first time I could see it in Widescreen at least 
Someone out there must have a nice clean quality recording ???
It feels very much like a macaroni combat film.