“I played it on horseback”: The New Mexico town behind Gene Hackman’s favourite movie scene
It’s hard to think of new things to say about the glittering movie career of Gene Hackman, who was a two-time Oscar winner, a four-time Golden Globe winner, and the inspiration for the naming of a real-life asteroid (that’s real, look it up).
His accolades are as varied as they are impressive, such that, when you talk about Hackman, it feels obligatory to mention his biggest hits, such as The French Connection, The Conversation, The Royal Tenenbaums, and then some, but there’s much more to him than that.
His filmography is so deep, you could write an entire book about his career without even mentioning his most revered movies, and fans of the late icon will each have their favourite ‘hidden gem’ from his back catalogue; for instance, you might like his turn as a cowboy in Sam Raimi’s The Quick and the Dead, or his rare foray into voice acting in Antz, while my personal favourite is The Birdcage, in which he plays a farcically bigoted politician whose daughter falls in love with the son of a gay nightclub owner.
Hackman himself was very aware of his incredibly diverse body of work. “Actors have moments in films less commercially successful, which they love,” he told Film Comment, before going on to talk about a film he loved starring in, but that audiences weren’t so keen on.
“I had a scene with Candice Bergen in Bite the Bullet, which is one of my favourites,” he continued, “I was telling her about my ex-wife, while standing around a waterhole in the middle of the desert. I played it on horseback.”
Released in 1975, Bite the Bullet is a western starring Hackman and James Coburn as two of Teddy Roosevelt’s former Rough Riders. The pair enter a gruelling long-distance horse race in the hopes of winning a small fortune, but must overcome a number of unscrupulous contestants in order to do so. One of them is Miss Jones, the sole female entrant, played by Candice Bergen; think of it like It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, but with more Stetson hats.
While Hackman might have enjoyed riding through the desert, with the movie shot on location in New Mexico and Nevada, the public was less keen. Bite the Bullet made just $11million at the box office, which was a disappointment considering the star power that was involved. It didn’t fare much better critically, picking up middling reviews across the board. It was nominated for two Oscars, ‘Best Sound’ and ‘Best Music, Original Score’, but most people agreed that the main bulk of the film was unimpressive.
That’s not the point, though, and as Hackman stated, actors grow attached to certain pictures in spite of their reception. Some of his favourite performances have come from films you’ve probably never heard of, which seems a little crazy when you consider just how many famous and acclaimed movies he starred in.
The same goes for audiences, too, for just because a film doesn’t have the highest Rotten Tomatoes score, that doesn’t mean there isn’t somebody out there who adores it, and that’s one of the many beautiful things about the art form.
