Chino
(a.k.a. The Valdez Horses)
(1973)
Director: John
Sturges
Cast: Charles Bronson, Vincent Van Patten, Jill Ireland
This little-known Charles Bronson movie is
about nothing
in particular. Yet I liked it a lot. Even to me, this is strange;
usually
when I watch a movie, I want a minimum amount of story, spread evenly
throughout
the movie. Instead of that, Chino more or less resembles
a collection of vignettes, with little to no connection between each
other.
So what was about this movie that I liked? I'm not entirely sure, but I
have some ideas. First, in the lead role there is Charles Bronson, an
actor
whose mere presence I find quite interesting to observe. Second, it's a
"spaghetti western", and I'm a real fan of such movies. But neither of
these two things are what you would expect. Bronson plays a quite
different
character than he usually plays, and this European western, produced by
Dino De Laurentiis, is in a different style, with a mix of American and
European contributions to the cinematic western. (Examples include the
movie being shot in Europe, yet boasting an American-sounding musical
score.)
This probably comes with Laurentiis getting American director Sturges (The
Magnificent Seven, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral) to helm the
movie.
I found the end result pleasing, but admittedly unusual - so I wasn't
surprised
to discover that no major American distributor would pick it up, with
only
a tiny and now defunct distributor giving it a small release Stateside
three years later.
Despite this fate for Chino, Bronson
should be proud of
his performance here. I actually think it's one of his best
performances
ever. His character Chino, unlike many of his later characters, has a
lot
of dialogue, which Bronson delivers convincingly. Bronson looks very
relaxed
and comfortable, and even has some scenes when he smiles or laughs out
loud. His character also not just has a personality, but one that
doesn't
always have him make the right decision. He's realistic, yet he's not
predictable.
When you think he's warmed up to the boy he takes in, the movie hints
that
he's not quite ready for a friendship when he battles an attacker in a
bar and throws him out in the street - right into the boy.
(Interestingly,
this sequence also shows that Chino himself shares some of the blame as
to why he's shunned by the townspeople, for he pretty much started the
fight.) He is a person that makes you watch him closely, for you're
curious
and not sure what he's thinking or what he'll do next.
Bronson's character, Chino, is a horse breeder somewhere
in the American
southwest. He considers himself a loner, so when young runaway Jimmy
(Van
Patten) rides to his isolated home and asks for work, Chino is
reluctant
at first. So is Jimmy himself, when he realizes that Chino is a
half-breed.
But Chino lets him stay on, and over the next few weeks their
relationship
grows warmer. However, not everything is comfortable for Chino; many of
the people in the nearest town don't take kindly to half breeds like
him,
so every time Chino comes to town, there's a fight between him and some
racists. As well, Chino's neighbor is trying to drive him away - not
just
in an attempt to claim Chino's horses, but uncomfortable that his
sister
(played by Ireland) is strongly attracted to Chino. Chino assures
Jimmy,
"I've left a lot of places in my time - but only when I wanted to," but
seems to realize that sometime in the future, he might have to take a
stand
or be forced to leave.
I know that the above description does sound like it
could be stretched
out for an entire movie. In fact, I'm sure it could have. Chino,
however, doesn't seem to devote more than half of its running time to
the
above plot details. The rest of the time is devoted to mostly
irrelevant
vignettes. There's a running story about the horses Chino and Jimmy
take
care of. There's comedy, as when the woman comes over and surprises
Chino
taking a bath, giving Bronson an opportunity to have a very near nude
scene.
And there's a lengthy segment when Chino and Jimmy leave the area for a
few days to spend time with a friendly Indian tribe. This sequence is
one
of the rare times that Native Americans have been given a chance to
relax
and show some humor about themselves.
The few reviews I've found for this movie range from
mild bewilderment
to ho-hum indifference. One user comment at the Internet Movie Data
Base
just more or less simply said it was "terrible". I think the critics
weren't
expecting a western of this tone, and were taken aback. And I'm sure
they
were probably frustrated by the movie's unwillingness to find and stick
to one specific story. But I didn't mind the meandering story - since I
have an interest in the offbeat, I felt quite comfortable with seeing
another
movie that didn't want to follow the rules. In fact, I found all the
irrelevant
stories quite interesting. Seeing the lives of the natives, learning
how
to break in a horse, all that stuff I found compelling and even a
little
educational. Sure it didn't do anything to contribute to a major story
line, but I found it entertaining all the same.
I also enjoyed the characters of Jimmy and Chino, and
their evolving
relationship. Jimmy sees Chino as a kind of father, and even Chino
eventually
sees Jimmy as a kind of son. This realization doesn't happen overnight;
instead, it evolves at a gradual yet believable pace. A lot of times,
we
can tell what they are feeling or thinking by their actions, instead of
their words. Chino is another of those kind of movies
that
realizes that silence can sometimes tell a lot more than spoken words.
Like other European movies Bronson has starred in,
including Lola,
Someone
Behind The Door, and Red Sun (another
entertaining
Bronson western), Chino has fallen out of copyright on
this
side of the Atlantic, and now appears on a lot of shabby public domain
video labels. However, I was lucky to see a video issued on Warner
Brothers
Video in 1984. For an early video release, the quality of the transfer
is surprisingly good, aided by the use of a print that almost looks
brand
new. The more open-minded people reading this and being interested in
seeing
Chino
would
be better off searching for a copy of this video edition, rather than
immediately
settling for an inferior print on EP speed. Undoubtedly it will be a
difficult
search, but after seeing the movie they'll probably agree it was worth
it.
Check for availability on Amazon (VHS)
Check for availability on Amazon (DVD)
See also: Cheyenne Warrior,
Bad Company, The Stalking Moon
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