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Rating: 6.5 stars

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arizona apache raiding party native americans cavalry cat and mouse sacrifice ambush settlers torture

All movies seen on 07/19/2021

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Ulzana's Raid (1972)

Directed by Robert Aldrich

Western | Action | Drama

Overview

A report reaches the US Army Cavalry that the Apache leader Ulzana has left his reservation with a band of followers. A compassionate young officer, Lieutenant DeBuin, is given a small company to find him and bring him back; accompanying the troop is McIntosh, an experienced scout, and Ke-Ni-Tay, an Apache guide. Ulzana massacres, rapes and loots across the countryside; and as DeBuin encounters the remains of his victims, he is compelled to learn from McIntosh and to confront his own naivity and hidden prejudices.

Rated R | Length 103 minutes

Actors

Burt Lancaster | Bruce Davison | Jorge Luke | Richard Jaeckel | Joaquin Martinez | Lloyd Bochner | Karl Swenson | Douglass Watson | Dran Hamilton | John Pearce | Gladys Holland | Margaret Fairchild | Aimée Eccles | Richard Bull | Otto Reichow | Dean Smith | Larry Randles | Hal Maguire | Ted Markland | R.L. Armstrong | John McKee | Tony Epper | Nick Cravat | Fred Brookfield | Jerry Gatlin | Walter Scott | William H. Burton Jr. | Richard Farnsworth | Henry Camargo | Larry Colelay | Gil Escandon | Marvin Fragua | Frank Gonzales | Benny Thompson | George Aguilar | Wallace Sinyella

Viewing History (seen 1 time)

Viewing Notes

A pretty well done late period western that seems to be more about Viet Nam than the American West. Mainly that Americans were interlopers and couldn’t hope to understand the “inhuman savagery” of the native american/viet cong; and that even in victory you would have lost something essential to your being while being no closer to comprehension of your enemy.

Lancaster is great as always, but perhaps even more suitably grizzled here. Great to see a very young Bruce Davison as the greenhorn Lieutenant in charge of the regiment pursuing the Apache raiding party. The storied character actor and sometime villain Lloyd Bochner, father of actor Hart Bochner, has a small role as well but doesn’t really get much to do in this film.

The dialogue wastes no words and has more authenticity than most westerns of its time, due to Scottish writer Alan Sharp’s concise prose. Sharp also wrote NIGHT MOVES, THE OSTERMAN WEEKEND and DAMNATION ALLEY to name a few, but only a handful of westerns, including BILLY TWO HATS (1974) and THE HIRED HAND (1971), which bracket ULZANA’S RAID.

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