Bite the Bullet
|
List Price: Our Price: $3.93 You Save: $6.06 (61%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $1.00 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Bite the Bullet
Movie Review: A Race Of Personal Best
Summary: 5 Stars
I watched this film the other night- I hadn't seen it since I was a teenager. I loved it.
It's a western that's much more than that. While it's premise is about a horse race- it's really about life's race; about games that seem bought and paid for, age vs youth, friendships and whether we let things come between them, and about why people run the race and how one man's reaction to it can influence others to change the dynamic(in a good way).
Hackman and Coburn make a good combination in this as former Rough Riders. Jan Michael Vincent had a role where he really had to shine and I think he gave the performance of his career, here. Ben Johnson breaks your heart in what is one of the most real roles he has ever offered (and probably a real testament to how the real cowboy lived). Candice Bergman is terrific, too.
This story handles a full range of issues (racial, sexual and animal rights) in a fair and real sense. Some have remarked about some of the cruelty depicted here, and the point Richard Brooks was making (I think) is, there are some real swine in this world. They view anything- be it animal or their fellow human beings, merely as a means to an end. They're either too stupid or too insensitive to know how dark they are. It's also an example of how we set examples for one another. If you allow stupid to do as stupid does- stupid will!
I won't spoil the ending- let's just say that it makes a point about what's really important, in a very effective, emotion filled way. I think you leave this film not only satisfied- but feeling uplifted.
My personal favorite of Richard Brooks and time extrememly well spent.
Movie Review: A race that tests souls
Summary: 5 Stars
Long-distance "endurance" horse races were popular in the later years of the Old West, and this movie chronicles one of them, held during the presidency of Teddy Roosevelt and sponsored by the (fictitious) Western Chronicle. Two magnates (Dabney Coleman, John McLiam) have called the race as a means of finding out whether native mustangs or pedigreed highbreds are better suited to long-distance work, and a motley crew of riders shows up to compete for the five-digit cash prize by covering 700 miles of rough terrain--from desert to mountain--in a week's time. There's Luke Matthews (James Coburn), a gambler, and his old friend Sam Clayton (Gene Hackman), both veterans of Roosevelt's Rough Riders; an aged cowboy (Ben Johnson) who's knocked around the West for nearly 50 years and finds himself with nothing to show for it; a quick-tempered, arrogant young wannabe (Jan-Michael Vincent); a small-scale Mexican ranchero (Mario Arteaga); a British sportsman (Ian Bannen) with a Thoroughbred; a hired rider (Robert Hoy) on one of the magnates' Arabian; and a young woman (Candace Bergen) who's hoping the prize money will help her and her husband (currently serving time for bank robbery) get a new start when he's released. As they struggle over the course men and horses will die and character will be tested and secrets come to light. Gritty and sometimes violent, this is a great adventure story set in a West that still has some of its old wildness.Movie Review: One of the loveliest Westerns ever made
Summary: 5 Stars
Perhaps only Richard Brooks with his tough-minded humanism could have written and directed a movie as open-hearted as this one. All of the major characters appear at first as archetypes (Gene Hackman the rough-hewn loner, Jan-Michael Vincent the cruel and callow young pup begging for his come-uppance etc.) but as the movie rolls on Brooks presents each in deeply human terms. "Bite the Bullet" is a kennly perceptive -- and redemptive -- group character study masquerading as robust adventure. I don't mean the big action sequences are a shill; they're beauitifully filmed and exciting as hell. But they take second position to the warm, forgiving quality of Brooks' storytelling. Unfairly overlooked on its original release, this is a movie (like "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" by a very different sort of writer-director) whose contemplative and profoundly humane textures glow with greater luminescence as the years go by. Sterling character work by the entire cast, especially the underrrated James Coburn and the heartbreakingly stolid Ian Bannen. As an added treat, there's a great, evocative score by the late Alex North. And if the finale doesn't move you to tears you may be beyond reaching.Movie Review: Bite the Bullet
Summary: 5 Stars
Terrific action flick about a 700-mile endurance horse race with disparate characters as competitors. The characters are wonderfully drawn, though tending toward types (Gene Hackman, the good-guy animal lover; Candice Bergman, the bad girl turned good; Ben Johnson, the tough old coot; etc.; think STAGECOACH). They compete against each other, but at the same time grow to respect each other; they are all honorable and winners. Hackman is especially good as the good Samaritan in the lead. Best of all about the movie might be the photography, which is stunningly beautiful, though the slow-motion camera work (a fad of the times that thankfully has disappeared) is overdone. Worth a watch.Movie Review: A Great Western - Gene Hackman at his best
Summary: 5 Stars
This has always been my favorite western, how wonderful to have my own copy - and on DVD! Great performances by a tremendous cast. James Coburn is Mr. Cool, as usual. If you enjoy great Westerns, Don't miss this one.