In 1954, Burt Lancaster played an American Indian in a psychological western called Apache, directed by Robert Aldrich. Eighteen years later, Lancaster appeared in another western by Aldrich which also dealt with the Apaches: Ulzana’s Raid. Apache had been made when the US cinema was re-evaluating its view of the American Indian, who in the bad old days of cowboy films had been generally portrayed as a villainous savage prone to the most hideous extremes of cruelty and violence. Ulzana’s Raid was made at the neight of the Vietnam war, and uses the American Indian for very different ends. As with Soldier Blue and Chato’s Land, Ulzana’s Raid depicts the west as a battleground between white people who basically had no business beig there and savage Indians prone to the most hideous extremes of cruelty and violence. By going to war with those they believe are ‘savages’, the 'civilized’ people in each film turn out to be exactly like them.