BallWubba Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

dougdoepke No need to recap the plot. Tracking a prize-money, cross-country horse race amounts to an unusual premise for a western. But the overall result is undermined by lengthy run-time, erratic character development, and an ill- advised plot twist. Writer Brooks had a big challenge trying to supply defining moments to the crowded field, and only partially manages. Too many racers are picked up and then dropped as the field narrows down to Clayton (Hackman) and Luke (Coburn).Still, the overall message is a strong one, especially as it involves that required staple of cowboy movies—the horse. Hackman's Clayton shows more regard for animal welfare than any oater I've seen, going all the way back to the tripwire when horses went head-over-heels in highly dramatic fashion. Of course, that produced broken horse legs and a lot of dead mounts, something the movie makers didn't tell us matinée kids. By and large, traditional oaters treated the critters as necessary props and nothing more. Then there's the dog-eat-dog world of racing competition where it's every man for himself. Of course, conventional productions often stressed the Darwinian world of the old West, where the lone hero faces down the bad guys. But here the narrative's upshot is the bonding among racers that challenges this movie convention. Such humane bonding moments also lend genuine poignancy to the narrative and account for much of the film's dramatic appeal. Then too, the script manages this with getting sappy about it. All in all, I take the movie as something of an anti-western with that as a subtext. Consider in the same vein, placing a girl (Bergen) among the racers, where she by and large holds her own. Too bad the story dilutes her presence with a twist that I guess introduces conventional gunplay into a narrative which already has enough action. Anyway, a girl competing against men amounts to another break with convention. Too bad this rather worthy movie effort doesn't produce a more memorable overall result.(In passing— Apparently, Paul Stewart's early important character {the gray-haired financier Parker} rather mysteriously disappears from the movie because of Stewart's sudden heart attack on location, IMDb.)

LeonLouisRicci Ambitious Revisionist Western with Great Dialog delivered by some Seasoned Pros and a few Newcomers. Backdropping it all are some very Picturesque Vistas of the Changing West circa 1906 where a 700 Mile Horse Race is Big News.Writer-Director Richard Brooks has Crafted an Interesting and Thought Provoking "New" Type of 'Sensitive" Western with attention to more Empathy about Horses and Man's Plight in a Harsh and Insensitive World.One could say that Brooks' Answer is to "Bite the Bullet" and Soldier On because there's Not Much One Can Do. Gene Hackman, James Coburn, and Ben Johnson are the Wisdom Wielders and Jan Michael Vincent and Candice Bergen are of the New Breed. Mario Arteaga is along for some Ethnic Flavor. All are Effective in Their Western Attire and Ride Horses like They do it Every Day. There is a Lot of Horse Riding, Obviously, and the Race takes up most of the Long Running Time and it all Looks Sharp and Believable as They Ride Toward Victory, or not, Taking time out now and then to Philosophize.Overall, it is a very Good Exercise in Seventies New Found Freedom of Expression and the Professional Cast and Crew make it a Cerebral Counterpoint to Most Westerns. The Ending seems Rushed and there are Jarring Jump Cuts that are Jagged and the Film Loses Something because of Rickedy Montage. But, the Movie Manages for the Most Part to be a Different Diversion from the Usual Genre Fare.

Robert J. Maxwell It's not a bad Western, as far as that goes, but it's hard to imagine why some people feel it's the best Western ever made.Half a dozen or so diverse character enter into a brutal week-long horse race across the Southwestern desert, encountering numerous tribulations and conflicts along the way. Is that original? Well, in a way I suppose it is. Here we have six horses. In "Sahara", Humphrey Bogart and his companions only had one tank between them.The musical score borrows from Aaron Copeland and Maurice Jarre's "Lawrence of Arabia," and indeed the scenery is exquisite, even if not as dramatically handled as in "Lawrence." (It was partly shot in White Sands National Monument in New Mexico.) Except for one or two effective slow-motion scenes of horses being ridden half to death -- or all the way -- Richard Brooks' direction is competent without being notable.The plot. It's as if a committee had sat around a table drinking café lattes mit Schlag and made a lot of notes about what can happen to people who are riding horses through a colorful but forbidding Western landscape.Let's see. A man can be bitten by a rattlesnake, or almost. In this instance they killed the rattlesnake on screen, for real, which is terrible treatment for a handsome reptile who wants only to be left alone. (I'll bet the wranglers kissed the horses' rumps.) A man can get shot in the back by an escaping prison gang. A woman can be almost raped by a duo of greasy no-goodniks who just happen to be hanging around in the middle of nowhere as she rides past. Of course, if the woman is Candice Bergen, it's understandable that they should notice her presence, but is it really necessary for them to try to do more than simply squeeze and bite her, as any normal man would do? Then there is Jan Michael Vincent as the hot-dog fanfaron strutting around and challenging strangers to draw on him, "trying to earn a reputation," a convention of only the earliest TV Westerns.An old man can die of a heart attack from all the stress, and Ben Johnson gets to give a great speech about how important it is to be SOMEBODY and have people shake your hand. Johnson at least is given his due in one long take in which he directly addresses the camera. The guy is an icon.Another extended monologue is given to Gene Hackman, a former Rough Rider, describing the way good old Teddy Roosevelt led the charge up San Juan Hill. (Kids: This is the Spanish-American war we're discussing here, 1898.) But he gets the destination wrong. It was Kettle Hill, not San Juan Hill.Let me think of some other things that can go wrong during the race. A man can be poisoned by villains or by mistake, and, man, is this a mistake. After Gene Hackman imbibes some whiskey he takes a couple of gulps of laudanum, an opium compound, clutches his belly in agony and ululates his pain like a wounded animal. In reality, such a cocktail would put you into a soft, furry, tangerine-colored sleep in two minutes.Oh. And can an upper-class British twit have his beloved horse break a leg and can he be force to commit a merciful equicide, even while drowning in his own tears? You bet.

alexandre michel liberman (tmwest) This film builds up your expectations but fails to deliver, which is a shame considering it has great actors and great moments. Gene Hackman, James Coburn, Candice Bergen are excellent, there is quite a beginning where Coburn and Hackman fight together the insolent Jan-Michael Vincent and his friends, the contrast between the Englishman and Hackman, and the philosophy of Hackman both in relation to cruelty to animals and to life in general. With all those qualities what went wrong? The end of the film to start with, which does not achieve the needed dramatic impact. The editing of the scenes fails to reach a unity to make it more meaningful. Brooks, who made so many great films could have learned from "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines", which is a comedy also about a race (in this case airplanes) and in my opinion the best so far on this subject.