Firstly he worked regularly as a Hollywood screenwriter. He was a fine writer/director so consistently mixed the good and average which it became impossible to know that to expect from him next.

Directed and screen-played with magnificent style by Richard Brooks. Exceptional and thrilling soundtrack by Alex North (Cleopatra, Spartacus), now a classic score. Colorfully photographed in Technicolor and Panavison by Harry Stradling Jr in Valley of Fire State Park and its Coyote Pass and Deah Valley (Nevada), Chama, New Mexico, Lake Mead, Taos, Nevada, White Sands National Monument, Alamogordo, New Mexico. Special mention to Ben Johnson as a veteran rider in his last feat. Exciting, funny and well acted, especially by Gene Hackman and James Coburn as two tough, two-fisted riders. Impressive and breathtaking ending with the finalists terminating the grueling race. An overlong and dangerous horse race is the subject of this stunning and grand adventure, an epic in every sense of word. All those individualists learn to respect for each other and develop a grudging and growing friendship.

The motley group of disparate adventurers are competing, among them a woman, ex-prostitute (Candice Bergen), Miss Jones, a Mexican, an Englishman (Ian Bannen), a young gunslinger (Jan-Michael Vincent), an old one (Ben Johnson) and two friends, Sam Clayton (Gene Hackman, though Charles Bronson turned down the leading role) and Luke Matthews (James Coburn). A bunch of ex-rough riders and a gunfighter enter a horse race in the desert.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a newspaper organizes a grueling horse race : 700 miles to run in a few days. It was sponsored by the Denver Post, which offered $2,500 prize money to the winner. The film was based on a real, endurance race at the turn of the century it was inspired by the 1908, 700-mile cross-country horse race from Evanston, Wyoming to Denver, Colorado. It deals with some aging riders as Hackman, Coburn and Ben Johnson who get chance redeem themselves along with a young gunslinger, a Brit lord, a Mexican and an ex-whore. Sensational Western excellently acted, marvelously photographed and well screen-written with fine eye by Richard Brooks.

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