Ulzana's Raid (1972)

Average rating

(64%)

Starring:	Burt Lancaster \| Bruce Davison \| Richard Jaeckel
Director:	Robert Aldrich
Studio:	UNIVERSAL PICTURES UK
Run time:	96 mins
Genres:	Action/Adventure
Languages:	English
Released:	October 06, 2003

Angered at their mistreatment by whites, a group of renegade Apaches escape from their reservation and embark on a rampage of murder, rape and destruction. A veteran army scout, McIntosh (Bruce Lancaster), and an unseasoned young cavalry officer, DeBuin (Bruce Davison), are assigned to track down the malcontented natives. As DeBuin, McIntosh, and their party venture into the unfriendly landscape, issues start to surface about to the morality of their extermination mission. Soon the party of supposedly civil white men are fighting amongst themselves, divided about the task at hand. As much as the moralists struggle, their efforts to stop Ulzana's Raid seem fruitless. On the heels of DIRTY DOZEN and WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE, director Robert Aldrich delivers another smash film. Intelligent and edgy, ULZANA'S RAID features all of the standard Aldrich storytelling techniques: characters full of suppressed madness and prejudices, a moral dilemma, and a loaded gun with a slippery trigger waiting to be squeezed. Add the scorching heat of the desert as a backdrop and Aldrich conjures forth another masterpiece: ULZANA'S RAID.

Radio Times

This was attacked by some for being a reactionary return to the depiction of native Americans as bloodthirsty savages and mocked by others for its attempts to combine violent action with diatribes about racial prejudice. Yet Robert Aldrich's powerful 1970s western also has many champions, who see it as both a bold Vietnam allegory and an attempt to restore a semblance of historical accuracy to events coloured by decades of horse-opera exploitation and liberal revisionism. Burt Lancaster is superb as the scout saddened by conflict, while Alan Sharp's script and Joseph Biroc's cinematography are first class.

Highest rated reviews

5 out of 5 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 5.0 stars

Andre#11 from CANNOCK, 1st July, 2004

Made in 1972, "Ulzana's Raid" is a brutal western in which a cavalry troop pursue a small group of Apaches who have embarked on a rampage of murder and rape. Bruce Davison plays the green-as-grass commander of the cavalry and Burt Lancaster the grizzled, world-weary leader of scouts. Director Robert Aldrich pulls no punches in depicting the aftermath of Apache attacks, but his direction is assured and the violence never gratuitous. The cast give good performances, particularly Davison and Lancaster, the former struggling to understand the savagery of Ulzana and his warriors, and the latter accepting it as simply being the way things are. A neglected modern western, "Ulzana's Raid" is a film I would recommend to any fan of the genre.

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3 out of 5 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 5.0 stars
Powerful stuff

Stevieb47 from from Surbiton, 30th January, 2005

Robert Aldrich's savage 1972 revenge western which as harrowing now as then - a band of Apaches's have left the reservation and gone on a killing spree - Young and idealistic Lt DeBuin(Bruce Davison) is put in charge of the calvary sent out to stop them - he is joined by wily,plain speaking scout McIntosh(a splendidly grizzeled Burt Lancaster) and his trusty Apache assistant Ki-No-Tay - the chase is on to stop Ulzana before he does too much killing.... DeBuin is from devout Christian stock and is appalled at the cruelty meted out to the Apache's victim's - he starts from a point that they are no different to himself but as the burnings,rapes and torture mount he begins to question how these men could have been made in God's image. McIntosh is more sanguine about it - he respects the Apache but has no illusions about the way they operate - Aldrich doesn't shy away from the more grisly acts but its more than the usual Injun bashing - the point is made that if the white man treated them better then they woudn't feel the need to do these things - McIntosh is not so convinsed and there is a factinating conversation between DeBuin and Ki-No-Tay about why the Apache kill and how others deaths give the killer power. Along the way DeBuin has his metal tested and has to make decisions that affect the life and deaths of both homesteaders and his troops - Davison is good in the role and Lancaster is exellent as the older,more experienced man who has seen it all before but knows what needs to be done - but still brings a warmth and humanity to the character. Of course any search and destroy raiding party Western of the time can have endless Vietnam parralles - and the fine script leaves the film open to more than one interpretation. Fine stuff.

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Most recent reviews

0 out of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 3.0 stars
Rough and ready

RJNeb2 from , 1st October, 2005

Some interesting parallels with Vietnam aside, this is a relatively uninvolving Western from Aldrich, boasting the director's usual equal mix of good and bad choices. In the former camp, there's an intelligent script from Sharp, and a sturdy performance from Lancaster as the scout chasing after a renegade Apache party. The first third of the film boasts some extreme violence to get the point across but after that it grinds to a halt and goes nowhere. De Vol's score seems inappropriately jaunty for the issues at hand.

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