Here you are then:
CHATO’S LAND (1972)
Classified ‘X’ for theatrical release in 1972 (‘International’ version submitted) after the following cuts:
R3 - Considerably reduce the rape scene.
Considerably reduce the scene in which a wounded man is hung upside down and burnt. All other shots of his body being consumed by fire must be removed.
R4 - Reduce the incident in which it is apparent that Earl has been killed by having his genitals burnt.
R5 - Reduce the scene in which Jubal is hit on the head and killed with a rock.
Director Michael Winner complained publicly that Chato’s Land had scenes cut which were passed for children of any age in America. However, Winner’s accusation was untrue since the scenes above and more besides had all been cut in America for a ‘PG’ rating (see below). Winner had shot alternate clothed takes for the rape sequence which he must have known were intended for the American market. Winner has a habit of making untrue statements about the censorship of his films.
Classified ‘18’ for video in 1986 (‘International’ version submitted) after the following cuts (41s):
At 30m - Sight of single horse in line of horses which suddenly collapses was removed.
At 32m - Sight of horse nose diving throwing rider was removed. Also removed was sight of pack horse being shot and riderless horse being shot.
At 52m - Reduce rape and humiliation of woman’s naked body by removing all sight of her fully nude when carried struggling into house and of her carried naked out of the house after rape; also remove full-frontal shot of her tied down.
At 69m - Sight of horse with rider being brought down head first was removed.
The 1986 video was also missing the mercy killing of the Indian set on fire (R3 theatrical cut above), a shot of Jubal (Simon Oakland) removing a blanket from the naked Indian woman and the killing of Jubal with a rock was reduced to remove the final blows (R5 theatrical cut above). It is not known whether these were additional BBFC cuts or distributor pre-cuts.
Classified ‘18’ for DVD in 2004 (uncut ‘International’ version submitted) after the following cuts (14s):
At 30m, 31½m, 32m, 32½m and 69m - Remove all sight of horses falling in prohibitive manner (TCR 01.30.15.23, 01.31.47.19, 01.32.06.14, 01.32.34.08, 02.09.15.09).
Cuts for violence waived for 2004 submission.
USA ‘PG’ rated version, released on DVD in USA and Spain, is a censored and re-edited print with the following differences compared to the International Version:
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shot of the group of men stripping the Indian woman is truncated before any nudity (cutaway to Indian boy on top of ridge observing);
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when the film later cuts back to the rape the woman is still clothed in the ‘PG’ version and she is carried away clothed into the shack (she is nude in the International version);
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when the woman is carried out of the shack after the rape she is wrapped in a blanket in the ‘PG’ version (she is nude in the International version);
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the shots of Jack Palance putting a blanket on the woman and then of Simon Oakland ripping it off her body are both missing from the ‘PG’ version to maintain continuity (as she is always clothed in the blanket in the ‘PG’ print);
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all subsequent shots of the Indian woman lying on the ground show her wrapped in a blanket rather than nude;
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after the Indian man is set on fire, the ‘PG’ version cuts to various, awkwardly edited, reaction shots of the on-lookers before showing a back shot of Palancewalking away. The entire scene in which Palanceapproaches the burning man and shoots him in a mercy killing has been cut;
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the shot of a mutilated Richard Jordan appears to have been ‘blurred’ around his genital area to disguise the injury;
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the close-up shot of Ralph Waite’s hand with a bullet wound is missing;
and
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the killing of Oakland is abridged. After Oakland is hit with a rock the second time, there is a cut to a shot of his dead face. In the International version, after the second rock hit, there is a close-up of Oakland raisinghis bloody head and then Roddy McMillan picks up andthrows a third rock in Oakland’s face and it bounces off. Oakland then slumps down (the shot of Oakland dead face shown in the ‘PG’ version is missing from the International version).