Product Description

Bite the Bullet is an epic Western adventure featuring an amazing award-winning cast. Directed by Robert Brooks (In Cold Blood Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) the film's turn of the century tale of high stakes and harsh tests of endurance glorifies the kind of gutsy men and women who built this country.Two-time Oscar® winner Gene Hackman plays a former roughrider who matches wits with a lovely but shady lady in distress (Oscar® nominee (Candice Bergen). Academy-Award® winner James Coburn (1997 Best Supporting Actor Affliction) is a drifting ex-cowboy who joins a gruelling 700-mile race and competes against a young reckless cowboy (Jan-Michael Vincent) a haughty English sportsman (Oscar® nominee Ian Bannen) and a gutsy Pony Express rider (Oscar® winner Ben Johnson 1971 Best Supporting Actor The Last Picture Show).System Requirements:Starring: Ian bannen Candice Bergen James Coburn Gene Hackman Ben Johnson and Jan Michael Vincent. Directed By: Richard Brooks. Running Time: 131 Min. Color. This film is presented in "Standard" format. Copyright 2002 Columbia TriStar.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: WESTERN/MISC. Rating: PG UPC: 043396077614 Manufacturer No: 07761

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18262 in DVD
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 2002-04-02
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Subtitled in: Chinese, English, French, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 132 minutes

Customer Reviews

An excellent alternative to the typical western fare
If nothing else, this movie has a great cast and a very interesting storyline. It begins in the first few years of the 20th century somewhere in the West. A 700 mile race is promoted by a newspaper that sets rider and horse against each other and the elements. It also pits the wealthy and their resources against those of more modest means with obvious results. However, I feel the strengh of "Bite the Bullet" is not so much a story of classes as it is the characters themselves. With a plethora of well-known character actors, the movie takes the time to develop each of these characters in a manner that makes "Bite the Bullet" an enjoyable and very watchable movie. Obviously, as a person who loves the wide-screen version of any movie, I cannot wait for "Bite the Bullet" to come out in DVD and widescreen format. However, until that time, I feel that once you see the cast involved in "Bite the Bullet" you will enjoy watching this wonderful and underrated version an era coming to an end.

A Race Of Personal Best

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.

One of the loveliest Westerns ever made
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.