For an actor I usually associate with villainous roles, he comes across as very affable and genuinely good-natured. The film also benefits greatly from a great score by Jerry Goldsmith and songs by Richard Gillis. They're all very pretty songs. The multi-paneled title sequence, with Hogue wandering the desert is certainly one of the most creative in film history. Cinematographer Lucien Ballard and editor Lou Lombardo returned with work that was up to the excellent standard they set in The Wild Bunch.
Cable clearly embodies many of the elements of the early pioneers of the west.
He lives almost entirely off of the land, he detests large cities, and he is a firm beleiver that man is at his best when left unmolested by the government and bureaucracy in general. It is bitterly ironic that his death should be brought about by an automobile, one of the major harbingers of the industrial revolution. Coming on the heels of The Wild Bunch , Peckinpah showed extreme range as a director who could overpower the viewer with images of violence in one film, and follow it up with unforgettable images of tenderness in his next.