In director Michael Winner's revisionist western, we see Charles Bronson portray the titular Chato, a half-native minding his own business, when an altercation with the local racist sheriff leaves the lawman dead, and Chato on the run. Who is he running from? A group of ex-Confederates out for blood, led by Captain Quincey Whitmore (played by Jack Palance), who decides to put on his Confederate Army uniform once again, so that “justice” can be served. The crew is unable to catch Chato in the land that he knows so well, so they take their anger out on his wife, and, after having their way with her, set the poor woman up as bait. Chato's revenge is brutal, as he finds creative and gory ways to make the ex-soldiers suffer.
Gerald Wilson's script gave Chato very few lines, meaning that Bronson's performance had little to do with dialogue, thereby making fine use of the man-of-few-words trope, so much so that it could easily give Henry Cavill's Witcher a run for his money. And Bronson certainly delivered as the strong silent type. The movie started a long-lasting partnership between Winner and Bronson—they did six films altogether, including the first three movies from the Death Wish series. Many years later, the director would go on to admit that Chato's Land was the only movie from their collaboration that Bronson actually enjoyed watching.
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