Bite the Bullet, which is the set's lesser-known film (in fact, this was the first time I had even heard of it) is from 1974. The movie begins at the start of the 20th century with a newspaper organizing a 700 mile endurance race across the still mostly unexplored Western United States.
At first, the cast has a real cookie-cutter feel. There’s good-guy animal lover Sam Clayton (Gene Hackman) who is soon joined by ex-prostitute Miss Jones (Candice Bergen) and a quiet cowboy named Luke Matthews (James Coburn) who has a bit of a past with Clayton. However, as the movie progresses, the character development becomes a bit more complex and the characters begin to really step into their own. The main story here is, of course, the race, though there are several sub-plots that help develop the characters as well as sneak in a little social commentary about life at the turn of the century. The movie runs as a swift pace and never feels bogged down, though it does suffer from poor editing which leads to some plot points becoming totally lost on the viewer or never coming across all that strong.
Having never heard of Bite the Bullet, and knowing The Quick and the Dead’s reputation as being a good Western, I wasn’t expecting much from it. To be perfectly honest with you, I remember thinking that it was the set’s bad “tag on” movie no one had any interest in. After watching the movie, I found that I was wrong and it was better than I expected it to be. Its by no means a "great western", but is still a fun movie.
The Quick and the Dead is the more “well known” Western in the set and places Gene Hackman in a much different role. A female gun fighter named Ellen (Sharon Stone) drifts into the small backwoods town of Redemption. No sooner does she arrive than the town’s local outlaw and “owner”, John Herod (Gene Hackman), announces a gun slinging competition. The prize for winning is a sizeable sum of money, but Herod’s true reasoning behind the contest is to bring a former gunfighter turned preacher named Cort (Russell Crowe) out of retirement. Cort used to ride with Herod as an outlaw, but has since decided to never fire a gun again in an attempt to redeem his past. Ellen, however, enters and decides to use Herod’s contest to further her own agenda -- revenge.
As you would expect, the movie isn’t all that suspenseful since you pretty much know who is going to win in the end. However, director Sam Rami does such a great job with camera work and editing that the movie becomes much more entertaining and exciting.
The most notable aspect of The Quick and the Dead is its cast. Not only does it include the talents of Hackman, Stone and Crowe, but also includes solid performances by Leonardo DiCaprio and Gary Sinise. Avid gamers may even recognize a few familiar voices from Lance Henriksen (Thomas MacGruder from Gun) and Keith David (Arbiter in Halo 2). Gene Hackman provides one of the movie’s best performances as the cold-blooded, yet charismatic villain. You know you should hate the guy, yet can't help but like him. Stone’s character Ellen is the only one that doesn’t come across as believable, though not because she puts in a bad performance. Instead, it is such a different role for Stone that I had a hard time seeing Ellen as anything other than Sharon Stone playing cowboy.
If you find yourself in one of the aforementioned groups, the Bite the Bullet/ Quick and the Dead Double Feature is a great buy.
