Le cavalier électrique

I was only 11 years old at the time when this movie hit the theatres. A friend of mine and his dad invited me to go see The Electric Horseman. I knew of Robert Redford, but this was the first movie of his that I had seen in a theatre. I really enjoyed it, and I thought how cool Redford was as a modern day cowboy. I have never been a fan of Jane Fonda, but she is a very actress and she did a fine job in this movie. I thought the addition of Willie Nelson and his music really made this a great film. I read once that Redford and Nelson sat next to each other on an airplane flight and Redford asked Willie if he wanted to be in the movie. I also really love the soundtrack and the scenery is incredible. I wish that this movie would come out on Blu ray soon so I can buy it. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend that you rent it.

To those people who didn't understand this movie, perhaps they were expecting something other than a simple tale. In this effective movie, Robert Redford plays "Sonny" Steele, a former 5 time rodeo champion who now hocks breakfast cereal for the sinister corporation, Ampco. Although a world champion cowboy, Sonny is no good at selling cereal. When Ampco buys a thoroughbred horse to solidify a merger, Sonny is outraged at how the horse has been mistreated. When he steals the horse in an attempt to set it free & get it back to nature, he is in fact attempting to make right what is also wrong in his own life. Jane Fonda who plays Hallie Martin, a reporter, is also caught up in the hype when she tries to get the story on an exclusive. As she follows his story & his struggle to set the horse free in an appropriate place, she comes to understand Sonny the man. This charm of this movie is its underlying message of a simple life, unfettered by hypocrisy and falseness as the right way to live and the redemptive quality of a man returning to that. Understated directing and a good supporting cast make this a movie worth watching.

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.