Bite the Bullet

At the start of the twentieth century, a Denver newspaper stages a long-distance horse race across the American West. The prize of two thousand dollars draws a field of nine riders, among them a cowboy who cannot abide cruelty to animals, his old army friend, a former prostitute, a British gentleman, a boastful young hothead, an ageing cowhand and a Mexican farmer in need of money. The route crosses deserts, rivers, forests and snow-covered mountains, and the competitors spend as much energy hindering one another as they do riding. Over the course of the journey, these stubborn individualists come to a grudging respect for each other.

Richard Brooks directed, produced and wrote the screenplay, placing the film between In Cold Blood and Looking for Mr. Goodbar in a career that by then included eight earlier features. Gene Hackman and James Coburn lead the cast as the two friends, with Candice Bergen as Miss Jones, Ben Johnson as Mister, Ian Bannen as Sir Harry Norfolk and Jan-Michael Vincent as Carbo.

Made for about four million dollars, the film took roughly eleven million worldwide. It holds a 6.6 rating on IMDb from some 6,500 votes and a 6.4 on TMDB from a much smaller sample, while a critics' rating of 7.2 from 72 reviews sits noticeably above both audience scores.