Bite the Bullet **** (1975, Gene Hackman, Candice Bergen, James Coburn, Ben Johnson, Ian Bannen, Jan-Michael Vincent) – Classic Movie Review 6736

Writer-producer-director Richard Brooks’s 1975 action adventure stars Gene Hackman (as Sam Clayton), Candice Bergen (as Miss Jones), James Coburn (as Luke Matthews), Ben Johnson (as Mister), Ian Bannen (as the Englishman Sir Harry Norfolk) and Jan-Michael Vincent (as Carbo) as just some of the nine top cowboys and cowgirls involved in a cross-Colorado endurance horse race in the desert, organised by a newspaper in the early 1900s.

The great race is one of 700 miles to run in just a few days. Bite the Bullet was nominated for two Oscars: Best Music, Original Dramatic Score (Alex North) and Best Sound. Strangely, they advertised it as a classic Western in the tradition of Shane and High Noon, though it seems to have nothing in common with either of them and it is not really a Western either.

Brooks’s often fascinating adventure is almost always involving and highly impressive visually, even if the film is overlong, hardly original and lacks a true sense of fun, taking itself very seriously indeed. The good actors work hard to develop underwritten characters and overcome the script’s trite observations.

Bite the Bullet can count is main successes as Harry Stradling Sr’s location Metrocolor cinematography, Alex North’s Oscar-nominated score and Brooks’s ingenuity in keeping the great race going for an entire hour and a half of screen time and the movie going for 132 minutes.

Also in the cast are Paul Stewart, Dabney Coleman, Robert Donner, Mario Arteaga, Robert Hoy, Jean Willes, Sally Kirkland, John McLiam, Jerry Gatlin, Buddy Van Horn and Walter Scott Jr.

It was a hit. Costing $4 million, it earned $11 million in the US.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6736

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com

Jan-Michael Vincent stars as Carbo in Bite the Bullet.