Der elektrische Reiter

This film is not about the horse, is not about a romance.

The film portraits the unstoppable greed of a corporation confronted with the moral values of a true cowboy and how he realize he has lost that spirit that took him to became a cowboy.

This film is intended to show how we destroy everything we touch just to increase our profits.

So, you are right about the hairstyle, the wardrobe, everything is so 70's.

But the message is not old in fact is so XXI century as your brand new digital cameras.

This film made me understand my family, my past, present and future.

Now I see what my father tried to taught me, what my brothers understood years ago.

This movie stars Robert Redford as an five time rodeo champion who is now a has-been promoting a breakfast cereal. Jane Fonda is a reporter who wants to interview Redford, but he just blows her off. Redford is basically upset always being told what to do and he steals a 12 million dollar horse that they're mistreating and he's going to take it out and set it free. The company that owns the horse wants to keep it quiet and then wants to send in the police. Fonda tracks him down and joins up with him so she can get a bigger story and of course, they have to fall in love. This movie seems to be a cross between It Happened One Night and Lonely Are The Brave. This was directed by Sydney Pollock who has worked with Redford several times before and also with Fonda.

In the days when people treated one another with more civility, sound bites (bights) and high-energy opinion didn't rule the political scene, and sensationalism didn't masquerade as being newsworthy, Hollywood's film industry was cranking out fare that didn't placate to the juvenile demographic.

"The Electric Horseman" is a forward thinking film populated with adult actors that have adult sensibilities. There are no quick put-downs and one-liners comprised of single syllable words. And when I say adult, I don't mean the bawdy toilet film making styles that literally pollute the media air.

"The Electric Horseman" is mainstream cinema from the closing era of the 1970s. When people wearing ties and blouses attended the movie house, and did so politely.

In this regard "The Electric Horseman" is a throwback to another era when people had more comport in their personal presentation, and demonstrated an amount of civility and societal understanding. Even so, corporate greed is exposed in the plot, as well as the foibles of a femme-reporteress whose hunger for success shows her inner soul to both character and audience (appropriately played by Jane Fonda).

The stalwart American society is also appropriately reflected in Robert Redford's character, who gives us a character who must rediscover his "awe shucks" self through an act of humanity for the sake of a stricken and exploited living, breathing creature that cannot speak for itself; Rising Star.

Cinematography is professional, as are all elements of this film. No performance is overstated, save for Fonda, but, if I know Pollack, that was intentional. The feminist climbing the media ladder and forgetting her ideals by breaking the rules for the sake of those ideals, is met with the has-been buckaroo who has similarly rediscovered who and what he is.

The romance is standard Hollywood 101, but, though not entirely necessary, is still appropriate, and in this regard, probably satisfying to the audience--men and women alike.

It's not a deep film on a personal level, but it is profound on the character level. We sympathize with the characters and identify with them in a detached manner. They are extensions of us (or what we might've been) were we in those situations.

No flashy cuts, no CGI, no rumbling sound effects, no splashy cinema effects of any-kind, standard lensing, tight scripting, and solid thesping make this film a sight for sore eyes.

Thank you Mister Pollack, Mister Redford... and I'd never thought I'd say it, but, thank you "Mizz" Fonda.

I like Pollack. I'm not sure there's anything that I wouldn't at least give a chance, as long as he had an important part in the making of it. This is probably the most formulaic thing I've seen of his... which isn't to say that it's necessarily bad. It's just that, well, if you don't see the majority of what happens in this, coming, the likeliest explanation is that you haven't seen one of the many films that follow essentially the same plot. It's not exactly unpredictable. The points of it are also made in a pretty see-through manner, with poignant speeches and the like. But with those in mind, and the fact that this isn't necessarily meant to be taken too seriously, this isn't bad. The direction is effective. Its editing and cinematography are well-done. The acting leaves little to be desired. The writing is good. The characters are at least average. The music is very fitting. That would be the original version, with Willie Nelson performing it, not the other kind. There is a limited amount of language in it, of varying degree, not a lot of which is terribly harsh. The drug/alcohol material is vague, and the sexuality tends to be tastefully done(for being partially set in Las Vegas, this is mighty clean). I recommend this to any lovers of the four-legged animal, Redford, Fonda and/or anyone else who helped create this. 6/10

Everyone involved in "The Electric Horseman" is taking it easy. The film is just a lark for some very talented people, and while it does have its amusements it doesn't add up to much. Robert Redford plays a rodeo-star who steals his celebrated horse, planning to ride it up to hill country to release it in the wild, but he's dogged by inquisitive female reporter Jane Fonda. There's a message about wildlife to be had in Robert Garland's exceptionally thin script, which must have attracted both Redford and Fonda, but director Sydney Pollack wisely concentrates on the leads' budding romance, and the horse takes the proverbial backseat. Some of the repartee is sharp, but the movie doesn't particularly look good or seem fully thought out. As a result, it's unmemorable and undemanding, though not without minor enjoyment. **1/2 from ****