The Electric Horseman
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Movie Reviews of The Electric Horseman
Movie Review: The Electric Horseman
Summary: 5 Stars
One of my favorites. I never liked Robert Redford until he did this movie. Showed a love and compassion for horses and nature. Beautiful scenic views. A great family film.Movie Review: oater
Summary: 5 Stars
This ones for the girls guys. robert redford does a passing job as a drunken rodeo cowboy, but once again jane fonda shows up to ruin a good movieMovie Review: The movie Electric Horsemen is in excellent condition.
Summary: 5 Stars
The movie Electric Horsemen is in excellent condition - glad we ordered it. Came in a timely manner - will order again.Movie Review: Western favorite
Summary: 5 Stars
Beautiful scenery and beautiful music combined in a timeless story of someone trying to make a difference.Movie Review: Arguably one of Redford's greatest roles
Summary: 4 Stars
Sydney Pollack was a director who inspired you to see a film just because of his name. His career was marked by impressive taste and consistency. He was not the greatest director of all time, though Tootsie is a classic comedy, but he had a gift for piloting respectable entertainment with larger-than-life stars. His 1979 film "The Electric Horseman" is a great example. Starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda at the peak of their careers, it's a touching romantic comedy with light shades of drama and action.
It was a big hit in 1979, though today not as fondly remembered as other Pollack films of the era (Out of Africa, The Way We Were (Special Edition)). Contemporary touches have dated it - disco music, Smokey and the Bandit - Special Edition car chases and Urban Cowboy chic - but you have the indelible Redford and Fonda finding time to steal a kiss in the wilds of Utah. I loved this film and was thrilled by the action scenes with Redford upon horse, riding through the streets to escape police cruisers and helicopters. Critics accurately noted the film was a lighter version of the brilliant Lonely Are the Brave (1962), with an anachronistic cowboy attempting to evade modern-day authorities. While the earthy Kirk Douglas classic focused almost exclusively on his race through the wilds, "The Electric Cowboy" is more interested in the chemistry of Redford and Fonda.
In one of his most colorful roles, Redford plays former rodeo champion Sonny Steele. Reduced to being a spokesperson for a cereal brand, he makes appearances in a garish cowboy outfit adorned in electric lights. He's usually drunk, stumbling from show to show with the help of long-time assistant Wendell (Willie Nelson in his debut film role). Appearing in a Las Vegas production to ride the renown race horse Rising Star, he discovers the storied thoroughbred is drugged and mistreated for commercial purposes. Realizing he and the horse are pawns of corporate interests, Sonny abruptly rides the animal offstage, trotting past ringing slot machines into the streets of Vegas, electric lights ablaze (an unforgettable image).
His idea, implausible as it may seem, is to ride through the desert for Utah where he plans to release the horse into the wilds. It's a touching dream, though the corporate CEO (the excellent John Saxon) wants Sonny arrested and his horse back. Jane Fonda plays hot-on-the-trail TV reporter Hallie Martin, who tracks down Sonny for an exclusive interview.
They travel incognito across beautiful vistas and viewers are treated to picturesque scenes next to campfires as Redford and Fonda discuss their lives and eventually, their growing attraction for one another, all the while trying to evade bumbling authorities. Redford's character, of course, is spiritually lost, and his efforts to free Rising Star is a quest of sorts. By living off the land (for the most part), he is going back to his roots and rescuing the horse is his attempt at redemption. Redford has rarely been more appealing and Sonny Steele is arguably one of his greatest roles. I believe it's a character very close to him. Just a year later he would direct Ordinary People and work only sporadically as an actor for the next two decades (in a lot of crappy films far inferior to this one). Fonda has the difficult task of making the cut-throat Hallie appealing. It's an edgy, street-smart role that hearkens back to the glory days of Hollywood, with the ghosts of Veronica Lake and Rosalind Russell hovering above.
Interestingly, Willie Nelson displays remarkable presence in one of his first acting roles. He just about steals every scene he's in, and you get the feeling he relates as much to the Steele character as his own. His musical contribution, including "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" and "Midnight Rider," adds an undeniable grace to the film. His redux of "Hands on the Wheel," a song he originally recorded for his Red Headed Stranger album, is a beautiful ballad and casts a haunting spell during the final scene when Redford stands alone on the highway, hitchhiking towards the sunset.
Without doubt, "The Electric Cowboy" is a traditionally commercial product. But like all of Pollack's films, rarely has the package been more pleasurable. It's a memorable testament to a pair of extraordinary stars at the peak of their careers. And wouldn't we all like to hold back the hands of progress, thumbing our nose at the very corporate culture beginning to take root in 1979?