bitethebullet

You can find some real gems in seventies cinema. If you look hard enough, that is. Otherwise,
what you tend to find are films that star a bunch of actors you’ve no doubt seen before, but in roles
and plots that make you say: “What?” out loud.

Enter “Bite the Bullet,” the film about a 700-mile horse race across the desert starring Gene
Hackman and James Coburn. It’s the first quarter of the 20th century and cowboys have become a
displaced bunch with no real role in an ever advancing industrial society. Hackman and Coburn
are ex-Rough Riders who have entered the cross country race for different reasons. Coburn’s is
pure greed for the prize money, having bet a large sum on himself to win. Hackman’s motivations
are a little more dubious, but they become clearer as the film progresses. Sort of. There’s also an
eclectic mix that make up the other seven competitors including an ex-prostitute played by Candice
Bergen, a cocky young cowboy wannabe played by Jan-Michael Vincent, a Mexican with a tooth
ache, an ailing relic of the Old West and a sporting Englishman equestrian. It’s all about a race to
the finish with each racer dealing with his own weaknesses and obstacles across the exceedingly
brutal terrain.

This film is interesting in its own way, but it's hard to tell whether it's engaging due to its story or
simply the strength of its performers. Hackman and Coburn are the strong presences they’ve
always been and seeing them interact is always fun. Candice Bergen brings an interesting element
to the film in a break-from-type performance as the calm, compassionate, but still tough former
doxie. And honorable nods must be made to Ian Bannen and Ben Johnson as the Englishman and
sick cowhand, respectively.

I think the problem is that the story is more than a little ambiguous, which is refreshing in the
beginning due to the lack of unnecessary exposition, but starts to get a little confusing as the plot
progresses. This ambiguity is certainly a style choice and it works for the most part, but the
nebulous motivations of the film’s central focus, Hackman, makes this movie a bit inaccessible as a
whole. Some of it just seems plain random, like Hackman’s off-putting encounter with a bottle of
laudanum and his and Coburn’s strange tradition of whore-sharing. There’s also a an overly
generous amount of stylized seventies slow motion visuals and audio. The sequence where Jan-
Michael Vincent runs his horse to death is a sloth-like symphony of heavy horse breathing, hoof
and heartbeats. I swear this little episode would have torpedoed the film entirely if it weren’t for the
following scene where Hackman punishes the youth for such animal cruelty.

Anyway, it’s kind of a weird film, but it was the seventies, so a good deal of it's forgivable if you
understand the period. It is by no means a classic and may be worth a watch for die-hard
Hackman/Coburn fans or for people who just didn’t get enough desert horse-racing action out of
“Hidalgo.”