Ulzana's Raid (Universal Vault Series)

Bitter struggle in a grim land.
Burt Lancaster made an offbeat little group of western movies in the early seventies ("Lawman," "Valdez is Coming," and "Ulzana's Raid") that managed to transcend the typical western cliches of "a man, a horse, and a gun." "Ulzana's Raid" is a fine film of the culture clash between white people and the Apache. Movies typically make one group or the other the "good guys." For years, white people were portrayed heroically, and Native Americans were portrayed as murderous savages, only good for six-gun fodder. Later, some films (e.g., "Dances With Wolves") reversed the pattern and made Native Americans noble, brave, and admirable while white people were portrayed as cowardly, cruel, and shallow. Thankfully, this film cuts through the nonsense of personal biases and politically correct causes, and portrays both sides as three-dimensional human beings caught in a hopeless conflict.

An Apache named...

Ulzana's Raid
Being an author and Indian War researcher, I just have to take a minute and tell anyone interested in the Indian War conflicts in the 1867-1890 period of our western settlement to take note. This movie is a motion picture in real time action of what it was actually like in the southwest territory during the Indian War period. The Writer/Director and technical assistants have gone well above the Hollywood norm to bring to you the actual sights and sounds of small unit cavalry actions against Apache Indian hostiles, and have left no stone unturned. The panoramic scenery is a bonus in itself. The Apaches helped write the book on guerilla warefare and this is what this movie is about. The small Apache hostile band depicted in the movie were terrorists, make no mistake about it, and their acting is superb as well as their movement and presentation. Every scene in this movie and it's script is as if it were taken directly from official war department reports in the National Archives. Every...

Bleak Narration of a Rough Chase.
Robert Aldrich is a well known film director with more than 30 titles in his account. Many are great "hits" as "The Dirty Dozen" (1967) and "What ever happened to Baby Jane?" (1962) and some are standard stuff.

Apaches and the Wild West figure more than once in his filmography as "Apache" (1954) and "Vera Cruz" (1954).

When he directed this movie he was almost ending his career and felt free to take some risks. This film is risky and gives a stern look to Apache and White Men confrontation. Many of the scenes presented are cruel and barbarous but not gratuitous. They blatantly are inquiring for "Why this cruelty?" and the explanation come from Ke-Ni-Tay's mouth, voicing Apache's beliefs and traditions, giving a rationale to their procedures.

I've recently reviewed some films dealing with similar subject, not one of them is as bluntly direct and believable as "Ulzana's Raid".

Aldrich's movie shows no "Blue Coat Heroes", no "Native Shining...

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