Plenty of tomato paste! […] If you try not to think of The Wild Bunch, an immeasurably better picture, while you watch it, The Long Ride Home is not half-bad! It’s not the jolliest motion picture ever, but it has an authentically liberal outlook, evidenced by the hero’s dislike of war, guns and killing, and the fairly perfunctory nature of his revenge when it finally occurs. — Burl Cummings

The savage nature of the film was carried off in an edgy way, making it play out better than the preachy and much too talkative script. Glenn Ford can play this earnest soldier role in his sleep and gives the film the lift it craved to be somewhat better than a B film. — Dennis Schwartz