This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

The most romantic Burt Reynolds I've ever seen is the Burt that heads the cast of The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing. He's also dangerous and deadly when he has to be.Reynolds like James Garner is usually comic and cynical in his best remembered films. But in this one he becomes quite the romantic hero, almost like out of a romance novel especially to the object of his affection Sarah Miles.Burt heads an outlaw gang that consists of Bo Hopkins, Jack Warden, and Jay Varela and one fine day while they're robbing a train Sarah Miles crosses their path. She's running away from her husband George Hamilton, her rich husband who's paying a lot of good wages for a personal posse. Caught in the middle of all this is Wells Fargo man Lee J. Cobb.Reynolds and Miles make such a great romantic couple rarely seen in westerns. Jimmy Stewart and Debra Paget in Broken Arrow come closest to mind, but Stewart was an unabashed hero, not like Reynolds the outlaw.The title refers to the name of Reynolds's Shoshone wife Cat Dancing who died years earlier. That story is essential to understanding how Reynolds's character developed as it did. Miles is a woman who finds true love, but also gets a lot of romantic notions knocked out of a silly head.For fans of westerns and romance.

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.

It was famous stuntman Hal Needham's memoir that first clued me in to this movie ("But that was nothing compared to the time I helped Burt dodge a possible murder rap during the filming of THE MAN WHO LOVED CAT DANCING"). Burt Reynolds in a western? I've gotta see this. And for the most part, it's pretty good. A leisurely-paced movie, to be sure - which is completely fine - but the added somber tone makes the film drag for stretches at a time. But if you stick with it, there's a rewarding finish.Regardless of that, this is easily Burt Reynolds' best performance (at least of those movies I've seen), and he's the heart and dark soul of the film. If you need to see why Reynolds was such a star at the time, this is Exhibit A. George Hamilton is the other surprise, playing a real sleaze, which is something you really don't expect with that guy. And that's not to say that the rest of the cast is lacking (Sarah Miles, Lee J. Cobb, Jack Warren). But the real treat here is seeing Burt Reynolds nail it in a serious role.6/10

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.