Apache Blood

This is perhaps the most existentialist of the existentialist Westerns made in the US during the 1970s paranoia years when filmmakers re-defined the Western into a movie that wasn't supposed to be enjoyed. With that in mind this is perhaps the perfect example of the idiomatic shift since it is not enjoyable in any conventional sense of the term and is so existential in nature that one starts to project themselves sitting in front of a different television watching a different movie. Heavy. Matinée icon Ray Danton was coaxed out of semi-retirement by something along the lines of a palimony lawsuit and convinced to appear in this movie for enough chump change to pay his lawyer, and from the bravely solemn look on his face during the film's runtime (he has no dialog, period) one can presume that he lost the case. In any event he is cast as "Yellow Shirt", a fictional Native American renegade Apache who went on a murder spree to avenge the deaths of the Native tribe slaughtered at the conclusion of SOLDIER BLUE, which the writers of this movie obviously saw during it's 1975 re-release.

So moved were they by that film's carnage that they dreamed up the idea of having the Apaches avenge their mistreatment at the hands of Yankee cavalry troops. Either that or they were just ripping off any one of the myriad of other movies that were made by likewise minded young semi-independent filmmakers who were also moved by SOLDIER BLUE's concluding 20 minutes -- see CRY BLOOD APACHE, APACHE MASSACRE, and Bruno Mattei's SCALPS for more information. And better film-making, for that matter. There are times when extreme low budget and lack of talent in front of and behind the camera can excuse what turns out to be an inept project, but this isn't one of them. It was ineptly made by people lacking even the smallest degree of talent who gave their all & came up empty, and the majority of those involved were correctly never allowed to work in the industry ever again.

The movie appears to have been filmed over a period of roughly nine days by a group of people drawn together by a shared, common artistic urge to make a really crummy movie that would pack a nihilistic message into it's last 3 minutes, the more nihilistic and existentialist the better, and as such the film concludes with a sequence who's ambiguity is only outdone by the artlessness with which it was executed. The most artful thing in the film is a charcoal drawing of Ray Danton in his Injun brave makeup that is panned by a camera adjustment to a rendering of a fallen Apache by his tepee, which is perhaps an effort to compensate for the Apache Massacre which triggered this series of events only being mentioned as a voice-over narration.

This is heavy stuff, as I mentioned, and Danton is joined on his spree by a couple of other schnooks the director knew, who's Injun brave costumes consist of over-sized chamois shirts, some war paint & a headband, and their underwear. The cavalry soldiers (two of him were the film's writers) wear their own department store Levis with what appear to be identical bowling league shirts, and the weapons shown all look suspiciously like cap guns from the local K-Mart. As such none of the killings shown save one involve anyone being shot: The most imaginative is an homage to DEATH RIDES A HORSE where one of the evil cavalry hicks is buried up to his neck in the dirt whilst the Injunts play polo with his head.

The movie is unremittingly grim, mean spirited, cheap, and surprisingly uneventful even after the supporting cast has been whittled away and the movie devolves into an homage to Cornel Wilde's THE NAKED PREY as the surviving cavalry guide and Yellow Shirt engage in a mano a mano footrace to reach a stockaded compound that reminds me of a KOA Campgrounds main office. Between images of the two flaking out we are treated to hallucinations of their women waiting anxiously back at home, and the movie climaxes in a twist ending that is the very epitome of the word "underwhelming."

And yet, while being awful in the truest sense of the word, this utterly forgettable little movie actually manages to be more sincere than it's source material, SOLDIER BLUE, in that it never bothers to be anything more than an ultra cheap, grimy, thick-skulled exploitation film masquerading as an existentialist paranoid years Western. There is no star power at work, no politics, no dogma and no lessons on survival from Candice Bergen. Just a cheap, pathetic, filthy little movie that has very rightfully been relegated to obscurity on appropriately dingy, tattered fullframe home video prints that have very correctly been allowed to fall out of print. But you can find it on a 50 movie box set called -- apparently just for the hell of it -- "Gunslinger Classics" with 49 other haggard, unkempt and uncared for home video prints of movies that will all undoubtedly be better. It may not be much compensation but in this case it will have to do.

3/10

This is basically the story of mountain man Hugh Glass worked over and placed later in the later Old West with him becoming a Cavalry scout and the other mountain men becoming cavalry troopers. Watch "Man In The Wilderness" and see the resemblance. Mr. Danton was the only actor in the whole movie while the rest were more than likely hired off the streets. Pass this one by! Low Budget? Yeah. This one must of been made with $1.98! I feel sorry for Mr. Danton as he was a terrific actor and this film was below his standards. The two scriptwriters were actors in this film. One played the scout and the other was the Agarn-looking trooper in the fort at the end of the flick who shot at the scout and Mr. Danton.

This is truly one of the worst films I have had the misfortunate of seeing. It was my dad's turn to rent a film, and for some reason he came home 'Pursuit' a.k.a 'Apache Blood.' The fact that it is a western, piqued his interest. As we began to watch it, we recognized that the acting (what little there was) was horrid, and the plot, insipid. Upon this discovery, we realized that our evenings entertainment was ruined. But maybe not. My dad ingeniously decided to run the tape on fast forward while in play function. With a few added silly sound effects, what was drivel, turned into a hilarious father/daughter evening.

Ultra low budget, and not particularly good, western from the 70s. The vastly underrated Ray Danton shows what ruined his acting career... although he had been on the slide for some time. This was his third last film - he went on to direct, mainly in TV.

Still for those who enjoy watching films (as I do) made on Hollywood's fringe with former stars this is for you.

The reality is these types of films kept former leading actors (albeit some of them were second string leading men) working when they grew older and had been forgotten by the major studios. ( great actor stars like Rory Calhoun, Guy Madison, Cameron Mitchell, John Carradine and many more). It's would be quite a experience to go ( like Ray here) from "under contract to ...." to small B pictures and drive-in fair, but an actor has to pay the bills. And this fringe Hollywood can produce minor classics ( although this is not one of them) and must be an interesting place to work in. The only film to capture a bit of this fringe low budget Hollywood cinema successfully is Frank Oz and Steve Martin's comedy "Bowfinger".

As for the film itself, the direction is basic, the editing is rotten, and the acting is passable... just.( better direction could have helped). But still through it all Ray Danton shines, you can tell he is a breed apart from everyone else involved in the film.

Another Indian treaty is broken and the angry Apaches, led by Hollywood/exploitation veteran Ray Danton, are massacring any blue-coat they come across. Meanwhile, a civilian Army scout is mauled by a bear and left for dead by his troop, much like Richard Harris in Man In The Wilderness. (a much better film)

The enjoyment (or non-enjoyment) of Apache Blood is entirely dependent on one's tolerance for no-budget drive-in schlock.

The film is told with minimal dialog and almost entirely in pictures with familiar library music blaring away, keeping it from being totally boring but also hampering the story a bit as well.

After a lousy ending, the final eight or so minutes is a complete waste of time with a long slow-motion sequence recounting all the movie's violent moments, as well as an artist's rendering of Danton as the Apache explored at length by the camera!