This early 70s revisionist western, made very much in the shadow of the conflict in southeast Asia, features first rate action sequences from director Robert Aldrich. Best scenes of the film for me were those in which the U. S. Cavalry and the Apaches try to outmaneuver and out think each other in a violent, harsh desert landscape in which, thanks to DP Joseph Biroc, the viewer is thoroughly immersed.
Also notable is a fine, late career Burt Lancaster performance as an aging, world weary scout and solid support from Bruce Davidson, looking and acting like Harry Carey Jr. (a good thing) as a callow lieutenant and Richard Jaeckel, an Aldrich veteran, as a very un callow sergeant.
Unfortunately, the strength of the battle sequences is somewhat vitiated by Alan Sharp's screenplay which is good when providing Lancaster and Jaeckel with wry, cynical one liners but has a regrettable tendency to engage in heavy handed, White versus Native American musings, particularly when the cavalry beds down for the night. And in a revisionist western it's more than a little off putting that Indian stereotypes have not been more fully revised. A movie made in 1972 should not have the whites conversing freely while the Apaches are mostly silent, shrieking or grunting. And casting Latinos to play them is not an advance in enlightenment over Jews and Italians.
Bottom line: It's no "Fort Apache", but it's a heck of a lot better than "Rio Grande". B minus.
Also notable is a fine, late career Burt Lancaster performance as an aging, world weary scout and solid support from Bruce Davidson, looking and acting like Harry Carey Jr. (a good thing) as a callow lieutenant and Richard Jaeckel, an Aldrich veteran, as a very un callow sergeant.
Unfortunately, the strength of the battle sequences is somewhat vitiated by Alan Sharp's screenplay which is good when providing Lancaster and Jaeckel with wry, cynical one liners but has a regrettable tendency to engage in heavy handed, White versus Native American musings, particularly when the cavalry beds down for the night. And in a revisionist western it's more than a little off putting that Indian stereotypes have not been more fully revised. A movie made in 1972 should not have the whites conversing freely while the Apaches are mostly silent, shrieking or grunting. And casting Latinos to play them is not an advance in enlightenment over Jews and Italians.
Bottom line: It's no "Fort Apache", but it's a heck of a lot better than "Rio Grande". B minus.