CRY BLOOD APACHE is without a doubt one of the most dismal and ineptly made American Westerns ever, and is really an exploitation/revenge thriller in disguise. What happens on screen (bunch of slack jawed yokels massacre a Native American family and face ruthless revenge from a surviving Navajo Brave) isn't as interesting as the divergent ideas and cult movie personalities who participated in it's execution.
Western legend Joe McCrea was coaxed out of retirement by his son -- who produced & stars the film -- to appear in a three and a half minute wraparound segment that attempts to establish him remembering the events depicted as a flashback. He gets to ride a horse on screen, look thoughtfully into the camera for a spell, and is given headline billing even though his character could easily have been written out with no ill effect to the somewhat nauseating story which unfolds. He is there as a name.
The film plays out like a "response" to the vastly superior SOLDIER BLUE, a notorious exercise in degradation and sleaze that still stands as a milestone to Vietnam era liberal aggendized film-making run amok. The horrors shown in CRY BLOOD APACHE do not come close to the carnage in SOLDIER BLUE, which at least had something to say (US military = evil barbaric racist baby killers & rapists), where CRY BLOOD APACHE merely exists to show a series of Injun killings as revenge for a personal score. It is a smaller, filthier movie, with no larger aspirations than to part viewing audiences from their money.
With that said, the film has some interest in who is behind it: Writer Sean MacGregor would achieve notoriety of sorts with his cult 1975 thriller DEVIL TIMES FIVE, with the busty Caroline Stellar (birth mother of 70's pin up idol Lief Garrett, who appeared with his mom in that heartwarming film) lending her person to the proceedings. And the film was directed by Jack Starrett (who also plays the Bible quoting Deacon) who would go on to direct & appear in 1975's RACE WITH THE DEVIL.
Fortunately, he perfected his craft by then, and I recommend those films over this one in a heartbeat. What CRY BLOOD APACHE has to offer is an ultra-low budget look that lends itself to the form, and some of the killing methods used in the revenge spree (death by hanging into stream, death by snake in bag placed over head) are actually rather chilling without being unduly graphic, and hint at things to come in DEVIL TIMES FIVE and RACE WITH THE DEVIL both. Sadly though, what the genre called for at the time *WAS* unduly graphic & leering barbarity, and while Starrett & MacGregor hint at such the 77 minute version still available doesn't really deliver the goods, and stands as an example of a film that is merely awful rather than the apocalyptic gory trashfest legend may suggest.
And if you like Joe McCrea, stick with RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY, please. This film will only sully one's memory of what a fabulous presence he had. Here he is used for a name brand draw, which is actually rather despicable.
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