Ulzana's Raid
With Burt Lancaster, Bruce Davison, Jorge Luke.
US, 1972, 35mm, color, 103 min.
Vera Cruz and Apache director Robert Aldrich situates the senseless, relentless carnage of the Vietnam War onto the stark stage of the American Western. Enlisted to hunt down a rampaging Apache leader and his gang, Lancaster’s wizened scout clashes with the young Christian cavalry lieutenant whose simplistic idealism is easily confused upon confronting extreme racism and violence on both sides. Well aware of the convoluted contradictions of war and an impassable cultural chasm, McIntosh – a character Lancaster admired deeply – lives between the white and Apache worlds judging no one, yet suffering no fools. As the allegoric action coils into a taut, bloody ring, the greater complexities within the subsequent confrontation perish unceremoniously amid a barren atmosphere of death, disillusion and indifference.
Part of film series
Screenings from this program
Sweet Smell of Success
Brute Force
The Rose Tattoo
The Crimson Pirate
Ulzana's Raid
Conversation Piece
From Here to Eternity
Twilight’s Last Gleaming
I Walk Alone
The Leopard
The Killers
Atlantic City
Criss Cross
Kiss the Blood Off My Hands
The Train
Vera Cruz
The Swimmer
Run Silent Run Deep
A Child Is Waiting
Judgment at Nuremberg
