Ulzana's Raid
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Robert Aldrich
Burt Lancaster
Bruce Davison
Jorge Luke
Richard Jaeckel
Joaquin Martinez
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
In 1880s Arizona, Maj. Cartwright of the U.S. Cavalry is faced with capturing Apache Ulzana, a renegade warrior, who has left the reservation. The pragmatic Cartwright asks aging scout McIntosh to go with a small contingency of soldiers to find Ulzana, and assigns idealistic, green young Lt. Garnett DeBuin to lead the troop. Working with McIntosh is Ke-Ni-Tay, a young Apache scout, who knows Ulzana well because their wives are sisters. Trooper Horowitz is sent to warn "Dutch" Rukeyser, who runs the Indian store, that the cavalry cannot protect his homestead and ask him to return to the fort. Rukeyser refuses to leave his home, but sends his wife and son along with Horowitz. Later, as the trio is riding toward the fort, they are attacked by Ulzana's men. Mrs. Rukeyser and Horowitz are killed, but Ulzana spares the boy before riding off. Meanwhile, following Ulzana's trail, McIntosh and Ke-Ni-Tay find his tracks and inform DeBuin that Ulzana is only a day or so ahead. When the troop later come upon the Rukeyser boy cradling his mother's body, DeBuin wonders why the Apache would leave him unharmed and sends him back to the fort with two of the soldiers. A short time later, Ulzana and his men observe Rukeyser from a ridge above his cabin and silence his barking dog with an arrow. When Rukeyser discovers the dog's body, he barricades himself inside the cabin and shoots through peep holes while the Apache attack and set his roof ablaze. Just when they are on the verge of breaking the door down, Rukeyser hears a bugle blowing the Cavalry charge and the sound of horses galloping away. In the silence, Rukeyser thanks God for saving him, then opens the cabin door. Some time later, when McIntosh and the troop arrive at the cabin, they find Rukeyser's mutilated corpse tied to a tree. That night, the horrified DeBuin, who, like his Philadelphia minister father has always espoused Christian treatment of the Indians, asks Ke-Ni-Tay why Ulzana would torture and kill a man yet leave his son unharmed. Ke-Ni-Tay explains that the Apache gain power from a man's death, and even more from a lengthy one, but do not gain power from a boy's death. Ke-Ni-Tay also admits that he might do the same, then adds that because Ulzana is aging, he needs more power. Later, DeBuin confesses to McIntosh that he now hates the Apache for what they have done. The next morning, DeBuin and the troop follow Ulzana's trail. When McIntosh and Ke-Ni-Tay find horse droppings indicating that they are less than a day behind Ulzana, DeBuin wants to speed up, but McIntosh urges patience and reminds him that the first to make a mistake will "wind up burying people." Further along the trail, Ke-Ni-Tay reports to McIntosh that the tracks now indicate that Ulzana has divided his men, and that the tracks they are following are of a smaller group of men riding alongside rider-less ponies. McIntosh explains to DeBuin that having most of their horses unfettered will provide the Apache with fresh horses when they need them. McIntosh then suggests that they send two two-man teams out in opposite directions to find which is the main group and report back. When McIntosh and his partner locate Ulzana's trail, he sends the trooper back to DeBuin. Later, McIntosh sights two young Apache with the fresh ponies, and in a gun battle, shoots them off their horses, then uses the carcass of his own dead horse as a shield. McIntosh kills one of the Apache but lets the other, who is wounded, run away. When the rest of the troop arrive, DeBuin wants to track the young Apache who has escaped, but McIntosh refuses, saying that the young Apache has merely run off to die. That night, when he learns that some of his troopers have mutilated the corpse of the Apache shot by McIntosh, DeBuin is horrified at their brutality. After ordering a proper burial for the boy, DeBuin confides in McIntosh that he has difficulty understanding the soldiers' brutality. Meanwhile, after the second scouting pair, the sergeant and Trooper Miller, are attacked in the hills, Miller dies and the sergeant returns to the main troop with Miller's now badly needed horse. The next day, the troop comes upon the Riordan homestead, which has been attacked by Ulzana's men. Riordan has been killed, but Mrs. Riodan, although brutally raped, was left alive. Sympathetic to the catatonic woman, DeBuin wants to send her back to the fort, but McIntosh warns that Ulzana left her alive knowing that DeBuin would divide the troop again by assigning some men accompany her. Using that knowledge to their advantage, McIntosh and DeBuin set in motion a plan to thwart Ulzana's next move. The next morning, one of the soldiers leaves with Mrs. Riordan but only pretends to return to the fort. McIntosh and the sergeant then ride ahead through a rocky passage in the hills while Ke-Ni-Tay and DeBuin stay behind with the rest of the troop. As Ulzana observes from the hills, Ke-Ni-Tay takes DeBuin's binoculars and rides toward McIntosh after telling DeBuin that when he sees a flash of light reflected from "the long glass" he must go back to McIntosh. The plan is to make Ulzana think that McIntosh and the sergeant are down to their last bullet. Then, at the crucial moment, when Ulzana's men are on the attack, DeBuin's larger group will blow the cavalry charge and ride in, overwhelming the Apache. At the same time that Ke-Ni-Tay is looking out from the hills, one of Ulzana's men, who also has binoculars, looks through them, creating a flash of light that DeBuin thinks comes from Ke-Ni-Tay. DeBuin then leads his men toward McIntosh, but the timing is not right and a melee ensues during which the sergeant and the soldier who accompanied Mrs. Riordan are killed and McIntosh is mortally wounded. DeBuin and his men soon arrive and rout Ulzana's men, after which DeBuin orders that all of those killed, whether soldiers or Apache, be given proper burials. Ke-Ni-Tay now chases the fleeing Ulzana into the hills and confronts him. Realizing that he has lost his power, Ulzana kneels on the ground while Ke-Ni-Tay shoots him. At the site of the battle, McIntosh, knowing that he is on the verge of death, refuses to return to the fort and asks only for a cigarette. After McIntosh calls Ke-Ni-Tay "Scout," the two men nod to each other before DeBuin and the troop depart. Moments later, McIntosh dies.
Director
Robert Aldrich
Cast
Burt Lancaster
Bruce Davison
Jorge Luke
Richard Jaeckel
Joaquin Martinez
Lloyd Bochner
Karl Swenson
Douglass Watson
Dran Hamilton
John Pearce
Gladys Holland
Margaret Fairchild
Aimee Ecclés
Richard Bull
Otto Reichow
Dean Smith
Larry Randles
Hal Maguire
Ted Markland
John Mckee
Tony Epper
Nick Cravat
Bill Burton
Fred Brookfield
Jerry Gatlin
Walter Scott
Richard Farnsworth
Henry Camargo
Larry Colelay
Gil Escandon
Marvin Fragua
Frank Gonzales
Benny Thompson
George Aguilar
Wallace Sinyella
Hal Baylor
Steve T. Leonard
Leslie Ann Flanagan
Mary Carla Flanagan
Ross Loney
Crew
Bob Aldridge
Jim Alexander
Larry Barbier
Sass Bedig
Joseph Biroc
John Black
Howard Brandy
Rich Brehm
Lee Brendle
John Buckins
Nick Chiarolanzio
Frank De Vol
Carter Dehaven [iii]
Bob Eels
Patty Elder
Terry Flanigan
John Flannagan
Bob Gary
Alan Gibbs
Paul Gilbert
Jim Gilmore
Jerry Grandey
Jack Hagard
Gil Hamison
Bill Hannah
Malcolm R. Harding
Chuck Hoffman
Roy Hogstead
Jack House
Ray Hutchinson
Joe Jackman
Tom Joyner
Beverly Kilburn
Joe King
Richard Leon
Jack Lloyd
Tony Lloyd
Michael Luciano
Mel Lyell
George Maley
John Marinez
Buster Matlock
John Mccarthy Jr.
Gary Moreno
Mike Moschella
Buzz Newhouse
Ron Ortega
Ken Peach Jr.
Lorraine Robertson
Paul Schwarke
Ignacio Sepulveda
Alan Sharp
Alan Sharp
Don Sharples
Rudy Ugland
James D. Vance
John Walker
Waldon O. Watson
Ernest B. Wehmeyer
Ward Wolton
Glenn Wright
Dan Young
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The film's closing credits include the following written acknowledgments: "filmed on location in Nogales, Arizona and on lands of: Coronado National Forest, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture/U.S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management/State of Nevada, Department of Conservation and Resources, Division of State Parks." The film was loosely inspired by an actual 1885 raid by the Apache Indian Ulzana.
Although an December 8, 1971 Daily Variety news item stated that Robert Lipton was set for a role in the picture, he was not in the released film. Although the CBCS attributes the role of "Mulkearn" to Chuck Courtney, Larry Randles is credited with the role in the screen credits. According to 1972 news items, the American Humane Association objected to the treatment of horses within Ulzana's Raid and rated it "Unacceptable" because of "alleged cruelty to horses during the making of the film." Although a LAHExam article reported that Ulzana's Raid was the first film to have been rated "unacceptable" by the AHA since Jesse James in 1939, several other films had received an unacceptable rating within the past two years, including the 1971 release Valez Is Coming and the 1972 release The Culpepper Cattle Co. (see entries below and above). Specific objections were raised against scenes of "horse tripping," a controversial practice that involved the use of a thin, virtually invisible wire that would cause the galloping horses to fall forward violently in action scenes. According to a January 15, 1975 Hollywood Reporter news item, the AHA praised NBC television network for airing the film with the objectionable scenes excised when the picture was aired on the previous Monday. The Hollywood Reporter article also stated that the horse tripping scenes had been edited out of the film before it could be released theatrically in Great Britain.
Many reviews and a production article in Los Angeles Times discussed the theme of "McIntosh's" obsession, comparing the character to Captain Ahab in Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick and "Ethan Edwards" in the 1956, John Ford-directed film The Searchers. While some critics denounced the film for having a hackneyed plot and excessive violence, others, such as New York Times critic Vincent Canby, praised it, writing "the very ordinary plot does not do justice to the complexity of the film itself." Canby also wrote a New York Times feature piece entitled "How the West Was Brutal" on the film on December 3, 1972, in which he analyzed the picture's subtext in relation to violence, racism and the settling of the West after the Civil War.
Robert Aldrich previously had directed Burt Lancaster in two 1954 films, Apache and Vera Cruz, both of which were co-produced by Lancaster. Aldrich and Lancaster worked together on one more film, the 1977 production Twilight's Last Gleaming.
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States 1994
Released in United States Winter January 1, 1972
Released in USA on laserdisc June 1991.
Released in United States 1994 (Shown in New York City (Walter Reade) as part of program "Apocalypse Anytime! The Films of Robert Aldrich" March 11 - April 8, 1994.)
Released in United States Winter January 1, 1972
