Chato's Land (1972)

After shooting an Indian hating sheriff in self defense, an Apache (Charles Bronson) is pursued by a posse led by an ex-Confederate (Jack Palance). But the Captain is unable to keep his men in check and as they descend into savagery and turn against each other, the Apache known as Chato picks them off one by one. Director Michael Winner doesn't have a very good reputation and with some of the turkeys on his resume, one can see why. CHATO'S LAND is probably as close to a genuinely good film as he ever got though admittedly I haven't seen his complete filmography. It's basically your standard revenge western but done very well. It's brutal and often ugly but the pacing is taut and Winner keeps the tension at a high level. This is good because it helps ride over some of the lack of logic in the script. For example, Richard Jordan's character is portrayed as a hot headed brute but after raping a woman, suddenly he gives a little speech which "humanizes" him somewhat that comes out of nowhere. And why when it becomes clear to the men that they are doomed, why do they continue the chase. Is racial hate that strong a motivator? Bronson is used more for his imposing screen presence than as an actor. He doesn't really have that much screen time and probably has less than a dozen lines of dialogue and most of it isn't in English. With Richard Basehart, James Whitmore, Simon Oakland, Ralph Waite, Lee Patterson and Hugh McDermott.