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.
