Main Cast: Burt Lancaster, Bruce Davison, Jorge Luke, Richard Jaeckel, Joaquin Martinez
Release Year: 1972
Country: US
Run Time: 103 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
One of the best films by often-underrated director Robert Aldrich, this stark, brutal Western is also an effective allegory of America's involvement in the Vietnam War. Set in Arizona during the late 1880s, the film begins with experienced scout McIntosh (Burt Lancaster) and idealistic U.S. Cavalry Lieutenant DeBuin (Bruce Davison) setting out to catch a group of Apache renegades lead by their chieftain, Ulzana (Joaquin Martinez). The story focuses on the opposing views of the two men regarding Ulzana. McIntosh is cold and cynical while DeBuin is morally outraged by supposed Apache atrocities. The film, sharply written by Alan Sharp, poses a set of complex questions about the nature of heroism, racism, and American imperialism, while avoiding moralizing or oversimplification of the issues. Aldrich and Burt Lancaster, who made four films together over the course of their long careers (including this one), later collaborated on the excellent political thriller Twilight's Last Gleaming. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
Review
One of Burt Lancaster's last great Westerns, Robert Aldrich's Ulzana's Raid (1972) is a tough, searing entrant in the Vietnam cycle of revisionist oaters. With Alan Sharp's script eschewing most of the '60s-'70s sentimentality about the beleaguered Native American, Aldrich austerely and forcefully reveals the potential brutality, as well as honorable intentions, lurking on both sides, as the oft-unseen Ulzana goes on his terrifying rampage. Bruce Davison's pious officer, DeBuin, is a potent index of white naïveté regarding Native American resistance and guerilla tactics, but it is Lancaster's pragmatic, aging scout McIntosh who most powerfully evokes the utter futility and tragedy of the unending conflict between white colonizers and non-white Others. Inspired by the film's Vietnam War resonance and a world view articulated by McIntosh akin to his own, Lancaster's performance was hailed as one of the greatest of his career; critics praised the film's thematic timeliness and rigorous craft. Its unsparing view of the archetypal Western struggle, however, consigned Ulzana's Raid to box-office oblivion. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
James D. Vance - Art Director, Glenn Wright - Costume Designer, Malcolm R. Harding - First Assistant Director, Robert Aldrich - Director, Michael Luciano - Editor, Frank De Vol - Composer (Music Score), Joseph Biroc - Cinematographer, Robert Aldrich - Producer, Carter DeHaven III - Producer, John McCarthy - Set Designer, James R. Alexander - Sound/Sound Designer, Waldon O. Watson - Sound/Sound Designer, Alan Sharp - Screenwriter
The film's bleak and nihilistic tone, as a troop of U.S. Cavalry chase after an elusive and murderous Chiricahua Apache raiding party, is allegorical to the United States' then participation in the Vietnam War. However, like other revisionist 1970s westerns, it treats Native Americans as the victims, fighting to maintain their culture in the face of continual European expansion.
Following continual mistreatment by agency authorities, Ulzana, who is known as Josana, breaks out of an Arizona Indian reservation with a war party. Soon news reaches the local military outpost that the band of Apaches have begun to kill settlers and homesteaders in the district.
Wiley U.S. Armyscout MacIntosh (Lancaster) is given the job of finding Ulzana for a troop soldiers led by a green, inexperienced Lieutenant Garnett DeBuin (Davison). Joining them on the mission is a veteran sergeant (Jaeckel) and Apache scout Ke-Ni-Tay (Luke). Ke-Ni-Tay knows Ulzana, as their wives are sisters.
The cavalry troop leave the fort and soon find evidence of the brutal results of the Apache war party. The film then focuses on the reality the soldiers have facing a merciless enemy that is prepared fight until death. Eventually Macintosh has an idea to try to capture Ulzana's horses. When the plan works, the war party attacks a nearby farm.
However, when the troops arrive, the Lieutenant sends the survivor back to the fort with a soldier escort. But the party is attacked by the Apaches. Outnumbered, the lead troopers know the fate awaiting their capture so he shoots the civilian woman and then himself.
The film then concludes with final capture and death of Ulzana, but not before Macintosh is fatally wounded. He knows he can't survive the journey back to the fort, so in keeping with the harsh land, he opts to stay behind.
The movie concludes with the young Lieutenant, who now lost his idealistic views, leading the cavalry troop back to the fort in a pyrrhic victory.
There are two cuts of the film because Burt Lancaster helped to produce the movie. One version was edited under the supervison of Aldrich, the other by Lancaster. There are many subtle differences between the two although the overall running times are similar and most of the changes involve alterations of shots or lines of dialog within scenes.
