We look back at the 1969 film starring Burt Reynolds, Jim Brown, and Raquel Welch.
Editor's Note: Throughout the month of October, C&I is celebrating the golden westerns of 1969, a year that changed the game for the beloved film genre. Check the Entertainment tab each day to see a different film recommendation by C&I senior writer Joe Leydon. And be on the lookout for the upcoming November/December 2019 print edition, which prominently features one of the 25 greatest films of 1969 on its cover.
Director Tom Gries (Will Penny, Breakheart Pass) stirred up controversy — and, yes, generated publicity — by including a steamy close encounter between Jim Brown and Raquel Welch in his rough-and-tumble action flick about an Arizona lawman (Brown) caught between downtrodden Yaqui peasants and a sadistic Mexican military commander (Fernando Lamas) while pursuing a bank-robbing revolutionary (Burt Reynolds).
But the movie works best when it concentrates on another relationship. As critic Roger Ebert noted: “Brown and Reynolds are good together; Brown has a cool, humorous charm and Reynolds plays to it like the other half of a vaudeville team.”
