Ulzana's Raid

In 1954, Robert Aldrich made his first Western, Apache, with Burt Lancaster as Massai, a spirited warrior who resists, then succumbs to, the captivity of his people. Twenty years later, Lancaster, now aged to perfection, is back as a seasoned Army scout hunting down a renegade Apache party. Joining a cavalry patrol led by an untested lieutenant (Bruce Davison), Lancaster's McIntosh is a sage voice of cynicism. When asked about the Apaches' objective, he growls, “Their probable intention is to burn, maim, torture, rape, and murder.” Across a bold but arid expanse they go, the Apache rapine savagely depicted in a post-Peckinpah style that startles even now. Like his earlier films, Ulzana's Raid can't be contained within the corral of convention. Good and evil have fled the frontier and what remains is Vietnam-era disillusionment. “You don't like to see white men behavin' like Indians,” says our skeptical scout. “It confuses the issue.”

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