The film stars James Coburn, Lois Nettleton, Slim Pickens, Anne Archer, Richard Anderson and Joan Huntington.

Writer-director Steve Ihnat was an experienced character actor who had just written and directed a self funded featre film Do Not Throw Cushions Into the Ring.

The script was originally entitled Home Town Boy then this was changed to The Honkers after a slang term used to describe a rough bull.

[7] Ihnat died of a heart attack in May 1972, at the Cannes Film Festival, shortly after The Honkers was released.

[9][10] According to Time, "Ihnat bears partial responsibility for writing this lackluster plot, although as a director he fares a good deal better.

He can catch the fleeting mood of a scene in a few shots, most impressively in a terse, brutal barroom brawl, and he has a good eye for local color.