Rating: 
Summary: "A good man."
Review: Is *Ulzana's Raid* the greatest Western ever made? "Best-of's" inevitably boil down to opinion, but it cannot be denied that this movie comfortably stands with *The Wild Bunch*, *The Searchers*, *High Noon*, *Stagecoach*, and so forth. *Ulzana's Raid* has particular affinites with the first movie in that list; it's one of those "anti-Westerns" that proliferated generally from the mid-60's to mid-70's. Among its many distinctions is its unusual attention to detail: one comes away after watching it knowing a heck of a lot more about the ins-and-outs of scouting and cavalry protocol. The movie is based on a book by a Scot named Alan Sharp, who apparently brought a researcher's mentality to the material. This is one accurate movie, ... In any case, it FEELS accurate. I myself have a middling interest in the Old West, and the matchless scene wherein a cavalry trooper "rescues" a young mother and her son from a marauding band of Apaches by simply shooting her in the head and then turning the gun on himself (with the instinctive knowledge that the Indians wouldn't have much interest in torturing a child), corresponds to accounts of "last-resort" tactics used by the Army during the Indian Wars. Later, when the bloody scene is discovered by his fellows, they assess the evidence and pronounce the trooper "a good man". All of this has a discomforting stab of reality that must bother viewers ... Condescending pity isn't doing anyone any favors today, and it was just as useless on the frontier 120 years ago. (Of course it's easy to be on the "Indians's side" in 2002. Try being a settler in 1882.) The movie is absolutely even-handed: the Army troops -- avatars of "civilization" -- are just as brutal as Ulzana's gang . . . while also being callow or racist or ignorant in the bargain. The most underrated director I can think of, Robert Aldrich, makes the most of his on-purpose ugly desert locales and brilliant script. He also gets brilliant performances from Burt Lancaster, a very young Bruce Davison, and Jorge Luke as the turncoat Apache scout. Aldrich and Lancaster had tackled this subject matter almost 20 years earlier with *Apache* -- but *Ulzana's Raid* is the masterpiece. Influential, too: having read Cormac McCarthy's *Blood Meridian* and Larry McMurtry's *Lonesome Dove*, I can't help but wonder how much they borrowed from this movie. McMurtry, in particular, might be accused of virtually stealing the scene where Lancaster is forced to use a fallen horse as cover during a gunfight on an open prairie...
Rating: 
Summary: An Aldritch/Lancaster classic but 1:33!!
Review: Lancaster's brilliantly understated portrayal of a war weary indian scout must rank as one of his best ever screen performances. 'Ulzana's Raid' is an unusual and insightful Western, it daringly tries to peel back the established stereotypical images of this genre giving us a more three dimensional take on the usual cast of Western characters, even the eponymous Ulzana is allowed a credible flesh and blood character instead of the more accepted cardboard cutout redskin. It's this willingness to train a fresh eye on the native American indians and their adversaries that sets 'Ulzana's Raid' apart from other, more run of the mill Westerns. The downside to this disc is it's presentation, I'm not sure in what aspect ratio 'Ulzana's Raid' was originally released but I'm pretty sure it wasn't 1:1.33 - what a shame a little gem like this couldn't have been given a fresh full-screen transfer to justify it's release on this exciting new format.
Rating:
Summary: Great underated film. Lancaster performs masterfully.
Review: Now: The subject is grim.
The actors are outstanding.
The script is very good.
I have it in VHS. And waiting for a DVD widescreen.
Probably the West (Southwest) was something like that, hats off for the Director.
Rating:
Summary: Great underated film. Lancaster performs masterfully.
Review: Now: The subject is grim.
The actors are outstanding.
The script is very good.
I have it in VHS. And waiting for a DVD widescreen.
Probably the West (Southwest) was something like that, hats off for the Director.
Rating:
Summary: A little gem of a western
Review: One of Lancaster's best movies in my estimation. Also, I hike that country and you get a real feel for what it must have been like to have lived in that area one hundred plus years ago. Unlike some others, I thought the translation to DVD was pretty well done. The sound is especially good on my system.
Rating:
Summary: Bleak Narration of a Rough Chase.
Review: Robert Aldrich is a well known film director with more than 30 titles in his account. Many are great "hits" as "The Dirty Dozen" (1967) and "What ever happened to Baby Jane?" (1962) and some are standard stuff.
Apaches and the Wild West figure more than once in his filmography as "Apache" (1954) and "Vera Cruz" (1954).
When he directed this movie he was almost ending his career and felt free to take some risks. This film is risky and gives a stern look to Apache and White Men confrontation. Many of the scenes presented are cruel and barbarous but not gratuitous. They blatantly are inquiring for "Why this cruelty?" and the explanation come from Ke-Ni-Tay's mouth, voicing Apache's beliefs and traditions, giving a rationale to their procedures.
I've recently reviewed some films dealing with similar subject, not one of them is as bluntly direct and believable as "Ulzana's Raid".
Aldrich's movie shows no "Blue Coat Heroes", no "Native Shining Knights". Shows just rough men immersed in a deadly confrontation trying their best to outsmart and annihilate the enemy. Yet, best human traits still emerge from this dry opus: self-sacrifice and loyalty; need for understanding and respect for the defeated.
The story centers in a group of nine Apaches leaded by Ulzana, which flee San Carlos Reservation and start a raid, creating havoc and devastation in their path. A small detachment conducted by a very "green" Lieutenant, an old White scout and an Apache scout follow the rogue party to put an end to their "amok run".
Burt Lancaster fleshes McIntosh with all his skill depicting a hardboiled scout having to bear the "authority" of the inexperienced military. Jorge Luke as Ke-Ni-Tay, Joaquin Martinez as Ulzana, Bruce Davison as Lt. De Buin and Richard Jaeckel as the Sergeant are very convincing.
A tough movie to watch, not commendable for young and/or impressionable audience. Nevertheless a "keeper" if you like "untamed realistic" Western!
Reviewed by Max Yofre.
Rating: 
Summary: The unkindest cuts...?
Review: This is one of my favourite westerns, but never have I seen a film in so many different cuts! Ulzana's Raid has appeared in at least two different cuts on British TV in the last few years; the UK video release is different again; and - you guessed it - this US DVD release is yet another cut. This edition is one of the fullest (it is nearly seven minutes longer than the UK video, and contains several segments that I've not seen previously) but there are some interesting omissions.1) During the Major's briefing at Fort Lowell, after McIntosh and DeBuin have left Captain Gates suggests DeBuin for command of the detail. The Major is unimpressed, as Gates is clearly showing cowardice because he expects a transfer back east in the near future. "What is it you have back there? An uncle?" says the Major. "My mother's brother," says Gates. "Out here, that's what we call an uncle," sneers the Major. But, realising Gates's utter uselessness, he gives the detail to DeBuin anyway. In the scene shortly afterwards, of course, Gates implies that he has done DeBuin a great favour. 2) When the detail settles at Rukheyser's for the night, DeBuin comes upon MacIntosh reading from what is in fact the dead settler's family diary. MacIntosh comments briefly on this, and gives DeBuin a potted history of the Rukyeysers' fortunes before Ulzana's attack. 3) After DeBuin has despatched the Sergeant and Miller to hunt down MacIntosh's wounded brave, there is a scene in which both men are pinned down by the lone apache. Miller is wounded, then killed as he tries to hang on to their horses while the Sergeant gives covering fire. I think this DVD is the most satisfactory viewing I've had so far, but it really seems extraordinary that there is no definitive cut of this fine, timeless classic.
Rating:
Summary: The unkindest cuts...?
Review: This is one of my favourite westerns, but never have I seen a film in so many different cuts! Ulzana's Raid has appeared in at least two different cuts on British TV in the last few years; the UK video release is different again; and - you guessed it - this US DVD release is yet another cut. This edition is one of the fullest (it is nearly seven minutes longer than the UK video, and contains several segments that I've not seen previously) but there are some interesting omissions. 1) During the Major's briefing at Fort Lowell, after McIntosh and DeBuin have left Captain Gates suggests DeBuin for command of the detail. The Major is unimpressed, as Gates is clearly showing cowardice because he expects a transfer back east in the near future. "What is it you have back there? An uncle?" says the Major. "My mother's brother," says Gates. "Out here, that's what we call an uncle," sneers the Major. But, realising Gates's utter uselessness, he gives the detail to DeBuin anyway. In the scene shortly afterwards, of course, Gates implies that he has done DeBuin a great favour. 2) When the detail settles at Rukheyser's for the night, DeBuin comes upon MacIntosh reading from what is in fact the dead settler's family diary. MacIntosh comments briefly on this, and gives DeBuin a potted history of the Rukyeysers' fortunes before Ulzana's attack. 3) After DeBuin has despatched the Sergeant and Miller to hunt down MacIntosh's wounded brave, there is a scene in which both men are pinned down by the lone apache. Miller is wounded, then killed as he tries to hang on to their horses while the Sergeant gives covering fire. I think this DVD is the most satisfactory viewing I've had so far, but it really seems extraordinary that there is no definitive cut of this fine, timeless classic.
Rating:
Summary: Western masterpiece
Review: This is one of the finest films of the 1970s and a great
western. Alan Sharp -- from Scotland -- is one of the
best American screenwriters. See his NIGHT MOVES from the
same period -- a golden moment in Hollywood when great
directors like Robert Aldrich and Arthur Penn found scripts
that were works of art in themselves, whose writers had
distinctive voices of equal weight to the directors'
mise-en-scene.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Seem Like Wednsday
Review: This isn't a critique, much less a review. Call it a stunned reaction. It's great to see a film for the sixth or seventh time and finally, irrevocably, have it blow me away with its sheer power, vision and brilliance. This has to be in my Western Top Five now. Hell, it's in my all-time-genre Top Twenty as one of the few movies that make sense of violent racial conflict (the sense being, of course, that there's no sense!). I read somewhere that Aldrich wasn't happy with the result. Well, that could have been Frank DeVol's cheesy "cavalry" music I guess; it's the only nit I can pick with the film. Hats and scalps off to everyone involved, but most especially Alan Sharpe for a script that really tells it like it must have been.
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