KnotMissPriceless Why so much hype?

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

disinterested_spectator The theme of this movie is rape. Sarah Miles is running away from George Hamilton, her husband. She stumbles into a train robbery and is taken hostage by the bandits. Bo Hopkins tries to rape her first. Then Jack Warden wants in on it. Burt Reynolds stops them. Then some Native Americans come along and try to rape her. This may well be the last Western ever made in which Native Americans try to rape a white woman. Most of the Native Americans in the movie are good, however, as are pretty much all the Native Americans portrayed in movies afterwards, so this movie is transitional. Anyway, Warden finally gets his chance, and he succeeds in raping Miles. Then we find out that Burt Reynolds killed his wife, Cat Dancing, because a man had raped her. But that apparently does not bother Miles, because she and Reynolds end up living happily ever after. I wish I could say that Miles was running away from her husband because he raped her too, just to round out the story, but all we know is that he is an unpleasant character.

calgarywino This movie came up tonight on the television and though I had not seen it, I had certainly heard of it. The reviews almost scared me off, but happily I read some favourable ones and and took a chance. Bert Reynolds gave a first class performance with subtlety, dignity and a quiet strength. His portrayal of a flawed but somewhat principled man with an unfortunate past was excellent and made me want to know more of the back story which I'm sure was in the book. Maybe it is that the book was written Marilyn Durham, and that the screenplay was by Eleanor Perry that gave the movie it's strength and tenderness ? The treatment of the Shoshone and other First Nation people was very good; they spoke in full sentences with humour intelligence and wit. They came through as the three dimensional people they are instead of the mere shadows that most movies of the time showed them in; something long over due in Hollywood. There were many good performances here, it is a movie worth seeing and deserves a serious place in the genre.

gaynor.wild The man who loved Cat Dancing is different from most westerns in that it is focused on relationships. This may not be surprising, in the light of the fact that the novel it is based on was written by a woman. In the movie, the woman (Sarah Miles) is really the central character, and the central man (Burt Reynolds) is somewhat secondary.We follow the man from a train robbery to his trying to get his children back, and realizing that he's not going to get them. We also follow the woman's emotional changes. She at first is simply running away from a husband she does not love. She later has sex with a man who has protected her, and is raped by a sociopath. She comes to love, and is loved. And this is a quintessential "chick flick," except that it's a western.Some men will like it, as well as some women.

jain_daugh It amazes me how many people see this movie as a B grade western! I found it to be an excellent adaptation of a decent western genre book that happened to have been written by a WOMAN. The casting could not have been more perfect in that each person played their character so well. And the characters were a 'spoof' at the cliché of melodrama types that most westerns portray anyway. This is a story about how people LIE to themselves and end up not only ruining their own lives, but harming those near them too. And how honesty comes hard and maybe late, but can come before one dies. The only flaw of the movie is that it didn't tell the full tale of Cat Dancing and the tragedy that befell her, Burt's character and their children's lives. On the other hand, I liked the movie ending better than the book's.