The cynical Western of the 70s (largely a
product of a Hollywood eager to shake off John Wayne's gung-ho
Americana and Hollywood's simultaneous misunderstanding of Wayen's
John Ford Westerns as nuanced) has a few decent entrants. "The
Ballad of Cable Hogue" and "The Life and Times of Judge
Roy Bean" come to mind. "Butch Cassidy" showed it
in sleek form (though 1969), and "The Wild Bunch" was
the birth. Richard Brooks' "Bite the Bullet" is a
lesser work, a film that doesn't catch its stride until well into
the last third, and a film that gives you precious little to
savor until that point.
Essentially, it is a turn of the century "Cannonball
Run" - the standard cast of characters comes to town to run
a 700 mile race. So you get the gambler looking for his last big
score (James Coburn - in a nice touch, he is introduced kicking
the boot of another character, just as he had his boot kicked in
"The Magnificent Seven"), the wild young kid looking to
make a name for himself (Jan Michael Vincent, pre- pre-spousal
abuse and all-around crack up), the mysterious ex-whore with a
heart of gold (Candice Bergen), the proud and quietly suffering
Mexican (some Mexican guy), the over-the-hill man looking for his
place in the era (Ben Johnson), and the sporting English
gentleman (some English guy).
Off they go, with Gene Hackman to round them
out, a pre World War I man of the ages, he loves animals (if this
wasn't the forerunner to Robert Redford in "The Electric
Horseman" I'll eat my Willie Nelson records), he is kind to
women and whores, treating them as equals, he is a civil rights
advocate, and he even touches upon a bit of anti-war theme (made
in 1975, Vietnam makes its most prominent debut here). Apart from
a minor double-double throw-in, this is the story, and the
characters live and learn - and become better people for it -
through the grueling marathon.
The script has some gems, but is largely leaden.
You'll find that Coburn quoted Bible verse well-ahead of Samuel L.
Jackson in "Pulp Fiction" and someone punched an animal
before Alex Karras in "Blazing Saddles." You'll suffer
through "I've forgotten how good a bad women feels" and
"Killin' a man don't prove you're a man" (delivered
luaghably by fashion model Begren) but you'll also enjoy "Why
don't you tell me the story of your life. Just skip everything
until the last few minutes" and a whore who asks Hackman pre-coitus,
"How do you like it?" - to which he retorts, "Without
conversation."
I'm sure the film strove to emulate some of
Peckinpah's work on the dying of the West. The principal assassin
is played here by rich man Dabney Coleman and he offers a few wry
obervations. But "Bite the Bullet" doesn't come close
to Peckinpah, and in fact, it falls decidedly short of George Roy
Hill's or Huston's work on the same theme.
Coburn and Hackman are fine, but they aren't
exerting themselves, and you see in their performances a defter
Mel Gibson/Danny Glover tandem, with a bit more grit and dust.
Hackman does what he can with his ridiculously advanced persona,
half Eastwood, half Alda. Bergen is positively invisible, as
should be expected. She is the Andie MacDowell of her age (Raquel
Welch did better in "Hannie Caulder" and that's saying
nothing, and everyone knows that Bergen did her best work on
"Murphy Brown", which is saying less).
Brooks direction is workmanlike and largely
uninspired (he is, after all, a workmanlike and largely
uninspiring director, with credits from "Cat on A Hot Tin
Roof" to "Elmer Gantry" to "Looking for Mr.
Goodbar"). That said, he reaches a few moments of renown. In
one sequence, he effectively uses slow-motion to depict a horse
sprint between Coburn and Vincent. In that Vincent is losing, and
his horse is fading, so Brooks splits the screen for effect (not
split by a bar, ala "The Boston Strangler", but split
so that Coburn and Vincent are side-by-side) but Brooks keeps
Vincent in slow-motion, while Coburn remains in real time. Brooks
also uses a few unique dolley shots across the vista.
Alex North's score was nominated for an Academy
award. I cannot see why. It is a bad Copland emulation, and in
that Copland has been used rather freely, from "The
Magnificent Seven" to Spike Lee's recent "He Got Game,"
the cheap facsimile (replete with orchestral diversions into
standard American ditties) was hardly necessary.
I seem to be in the minority on this film. My
Video Hound book gave it 3.5 out of 4 bones. I have it, and shall
deliver it to people upon request (get it from glendajean).
