Bite the Bullet is a 1975 American Western film

Western (genre)

The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...

 written and directed by Richard Brooks

Richard Brooks

Richard Brooks was an American screenwriter, film director, novelist and occasional film producer.-Early life and career:...

 and starring Gene Hackman

Gene Hackman

Eugene Allen "Gene" Hackman is an American actor and novelist.Nominated for five Academy Awards, winning two, Hackman has also won three Golden Globes and two BAFTAs in a career that spanned five decades. He first came to fame in 1967 with his performance as Buck Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde...

, James Coburn

James Coburn

James Harrison Coburn III was an American film and television actor. Coburn appeared in nearly 70 films and made over 100 television appearances during his 45-year career, and played a wide range of roles and won an Academy Award for his supporting role as Glen Whitehouse in Affliction.A capable,...

, Candice Bergen

Candice Bergen

Candice Patricia Bergen is an American actress and former fashion model.She is known for starring in two TV series, as the title character on the situation comedy Murphy Brown , for which she won five Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards; and as Shirley Schmidt on the comedy-drama Boston Legal...

, Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson (actor)

Ben "Son" Johnson, Jr. was an American motion picture actor who was mainly cast in Westerns. He was also a rodeo cowboy, stuntman, and rancher.-Personal life:...

, Ian Bannen

Ian Bannen

Ian Bannen was a Scottish character actor and occasional leading man.-Early life and career:Bannen was born in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, the son of Clare and John James Bannen, a lawyer. Bannen served in the British Army after attending St Aloysius' College, Glasgow and Ratcliffe College,...

, Jan-Michael Vincent

Jan-Michael Vincent

Jan-Michael Vincent is an American actor best known for his role as helicopter pilot Stringfellow Hawke on the 1980s U.S. television series Airwolf .-Early life:...

 and Dabney Coleman

Dabney Coleman

Dabney Wharton Coleman is an American actor, best known for his roles in 9 to 5, WarGames, You've Got Mail, Sworn to Silence, The Beverly Hillbillies and as the voice of Principal Peter Prickly in Recess and Recess: School's Out.-Early life:Coleman was born in Austin, Texas, the son of Mary...

.

Plot

Based on actual events of the early twentieth century, the story concerns a grueling 700-mile cross-country horse race in 1906 and the way it affects the lives of its various participants.

The colorful contestants include two former Rough Riders

Rough Riders

The Rough Riders is the name bestowed on the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry, one of three such regiments raised in 1898 for the Spanish-American War and the only one of the three to see action. The United States Army was weakened and left with little manpower after the American Civil War...

 (Hackman and Coburn) who can't let friendship come between them if they intend to win, a lady of little virtue (Bergen) with an ulterior motive, a punk kid (Vincent), an old cowhand in poor health (Johnson), an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 gentleman (Bannen) who's competing just for the sheer sport of it all, and a Mexican with a toothache (Mario Artaega) who literally needs to bite the bullet. All must race against a thoroughbred of championship pedigree owned by a wealthy man (Coleman) who has no intention of seeing his entry lose.

The film touches on the themes of sportsmanship, animal cruelty, the yellow press, racism

Racism

Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...

, the end of the West and the bonds of marriage and friendship. As the race progresses, the conditions test not only the endurance of horses and riders but also their philosophies of life and the meaning of victory and defeat.

Cast

• Gene Hackman
  Gene Hackman
  Eugene Allen "Gene" Hackman is an American actor and novelist.Nominated for five Academy Awards, winning two, Hackman has also won three Golden Globes and two BAFTAs in a career that spanned five decades. He first came to fame in 1967 with his performance as Buck Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde...
  
   as Sam Clayton
• James Coburn
  James Coburn
  James Harrison Coburn III was an American film and television actor. Coburn appeared in nearly 70 films and made over 100 television appearances during his 45-year career, and played a wide range of roles and won an Academy Award for his supporting role as Glen Whitehouse in Affliction.A capable,...
  
   as Luke Matthews
• Candice Bergen
  Candice Bergen
  Candice Patricia Bergen is an American actress and former fashion model.She is known for starring in two TV series, as the title character on the situation comedy Murphy Brown , for which she won five Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards; and as Shirley Schmidt on the comedy-drama Boston Legal...
  
   as Miss Jones
• Ben Johnson
  Ben Johnson (actor)
  Ben "Son" Johnson, Jr. was an American motion picture actor who was mainly cast in Westerns. He was also a rodeo cowboy, stuntman, and rancher.-Personal life:...
  
   as Mister
• Jan-Michael Vincent
  Jan-Michael Vincent
  Jan-Michael Vincent is an American actor best known for his role as helicopter pilot Stringfellow Hawke on the 1980s U.S. television series Airwolf .-Early life:...
  
   as Carbo
• Ian Bannen
  Ian Bannen
  Ian Bannen was a Scottish character actor and occasional leading man.-Early life and career:Bannen was born in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, the son of Clare and John James Bannen, a lawyer. Bannen served in the British Army after attending St Aloysius' College, Glasgow and Ratcliffe College,...
  
   as Sir Harry Norfolk
• Dabney Coleman
  Dabney Coleman
  Dabney Wharton Coleman is an American actor, best known for his roles in 9 to 5, WarGames, You've Got Mail, Sworn to Silence, The Beverly Hillbillies and as the voice of Principal Peter Prickly in Recess and Recess: School's Out.-Early life:Coleman was born in Austin, Texas, the son of Mary...
  
   as Parker
• John McLiam as Gebhardt
• Mario Artaega as Mexican
• Sally Kirkland
  Sally Kirkland
  Sally Kirkland is an American film and television actress.-Early life:Kirkland was named after her mother, fashion editor Sally Kirkland, who was a fashion editor at Vogue and LIFE magazines, and was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her father, Frederic McMichael Kirkland, worked in the scrap...
  
   as Honey

Production Notes

Charles Bronson

Charles Bronson

Charles Bronson , born Charles Dennis Buchinsky was an American actor, best-known for such films as Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, Rider on the Rain, The Mechanic, and the popular Death Wish series...

 turned down the lead role of Sam Clayton before Gene Hackman was eventually cast. The movie was filmed on location in New Mexico

New Mexico

New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

 and Nevada

Nevada

Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...

, and begins in a church in the small town of La Puente, New Mexico. There are numerous scenes of steam locomotives at work, shot along the Cumbres and Toltec (formerly Rio Grande) narrow gauge railway between Chama, New Mexico

Chama, New Mexico

Chama is a village in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 1,199 at the 2000 census. It is a small village, but tourism is starting to help the town's economy .-Geography:...

 and Antonito, Colorado

Antonito, Colorado

The Town of Antonito is a statutory town located in Conejos County, Colorado, United States. As of the 2000 census, the town's population was 873.-Geography:...

. The film's title comes from the creation of an improvised cap made from a hollowed bullet, which is used to relieve the toothache of one of the participants in the horse race.

Awards

Bite the Bullet was nominated for two Academy Awards

Academy Awards

An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...

 including Best Sound Mixing (Arthur Piantadosi

Arthur Piantadosi

Arthur Piantadosi was an American sound engineer. He won an Academy Award for Best Sound and was nominated for six more in the same category. He worked on over 80 films between 1967 and 1986.-Selected filmography:...

, Les Fresholtz

Les Fresholtz

Les Fresholtz was an American sound engineer. He won two Academy Awards for Best Sound and was nominated for ten more in the same category. He worked on over 110 films between 1968 and 1996.-Selected filmography:...

, Richard Tyler

Richard Tyler (sound engineer)

Richard Tyler is an American sound engineer. He has been nominated for four Academy Awards in the category Best Sound. He has worked on over 80 films between 1932 and 1989.-Selected filmography:* Bite the Bullet * Silver Streak...

, Al Overton, Jr.

Al Overton, Jr.

Al Overton, Jr. is an American sound engineer. He has been nominated for four Academy Awards in the category Best Sound. He has worked on over 40 films between 1969 and 1991...

) and Best Music, Original Score

Academy Award for Original Music Score

The Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:...

 (Alex North

Alex North

Alex North was an American composer who wrote the first jazz-based film score and one of the first modernist scores written in Hollywood ....

).

External links

• Roger Ebert review, Bite the Bullet