Audience Member
A provokative and thoughtful western, although extremely slow paced.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/06/23
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Audience Member
Burt Reynolds followed up his strong performance in "Deliverance" with this film, which did give him the opportunity to show off that he did have an acting range, but unfortunately, this film was pretty boring. Directed by Richard C. Sarafian, who later made the excelling "Vanishing Point", directed this film, but the story of an independent woman, Sarah Miles, who leaves her husband, George Hamilton, and hooks up with a band of outlaws led by Reynolds had potential, but the film drowns in self seriousness and mock emotion. A good cast is wasted, which included Lee J. Cobb, Jack Warden, Jay Silverheels. John Williams provided the films fine score.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
01/31/23
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Audience Member
One of Burt's better films of the 70's
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/26/23
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Audience Member
Based on the 1972 novel by Marilyn Durham, and directed by Richard C. Sarafian (Vanishing Point (1971)), this is a romantic western that's also tough and downright dirty. It was meant to showcase a softer side to it's star, who had been in some tough films up until then, but production problems marred it's reputation, despite all good intentions. Set in the old west, around the turn of the century, Jay Wesley Grobard (Burt Reynolds), is a train robber who is in the process of holding up one train, when he ends up with excess baggage in the form of Catherine Crocker (Sarah Miles), who is on the run from her cruel husband (George Hamilton), who has teamed up with lawman Lapchance (Lee J. Cobb), who is hot on Grobard's tail. It turns out Grobard isn't a bad person, he's a father with two children, that live with an Indian tribe, their mother was an Indian called Cat Dancing. Even though Catherine is repulsed by Grobard's behaviour, she soons warms to him, seeing him as the man her husband can never be, and they end up staying one step ahead of Lapchance and his men. It's a good western, but it had one hell of a troubled production, Miles' boyfriend/manager committed suicide during filming, Reynolds suffered a herniated disc and John Williams only had a week to compose a new score after Michel Legrand's score was rejected. Despite all this, it holds together, Reynolds and Miles have chemistry, and it's quite a sweet love store as well.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/05/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Unfortunate name aside, this is a pretty good, fairly low key drama set in the old west. Burt Reynolds was at the height of his career, playing a strong, silent type. Sarah Miles is the meek woman who falls in with his gang of ruffians. With Lee J. Cobb and George Hamilton in hot pursuit, they travel across some gorgeous scenery and get into occasional trouble. Veteran character actor Jack Warden turns in a frightening supporting performance. Like a lot of westerns, it is a bit overlong and could have used some more liberal editing. Worth a watch.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/26/23
Full Review
Audience Member
"Well, if she doesn't look as fresh as a daisy next to an outhouse"!
"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. Burt Reynolds plays a train robber whose gang is disrupted by the intrusion of a woman, the aristocratic Catherine née Cat Crocker (British actress Sarah Miles) who is fleeing an unhappy marriage.
Catherine's husband hires on a tracker (Lee J. Cobb) to find his wife who he believes is kidnapped. You never get the impression that Crocker (George Hamilton) isn't a decent enough guy in his own right only that his wife doesn't love him enough to want to stay married. With Jay Grobart's gang, Catherine gets more than she's bargained for, having to fend off the lecherous likes of Bo Hopkins' Billy, and the brutish Jack Warden's Dawes and later some renegade Indians.
Meanwhile Grobard himself is a driven man on the trail to retrieve his two children from a Shoshone tribe, left behind after he killed the man who raped his wife, the 'Cat Dancing' character of the film's title. We also follow Catherine's emotional changes. She is at first simply running away from a husband she does not love. She later has sex with a man who has protected her, and is then raped by a sociopath.
The scenery in this movie was outstanding with excellent performances by Jack Warren and Lee J. Cobb.
Worth checking out...wait a minute...just two people on my friend's list have seen this one???
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/06/23
Full Review
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