Synopsis
A former champion rodeo rider is reduced to using his saddle skills to promote a breakfast cereal in a gaudy Las Vegas show. When he's asked to perform with a $12 million horse, he discovers it is being doped to remain docile. He flees into the desert astride the beast in an act of defiance. A story-hungry female reporter gives chase.
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Cast
- Robert RedfordSonny
- Jane FondaHallie
- Valerie PerrineCharlotta
- Willie NelsonWendell
- John SaxonHunt Sears
- Nicolas CosterFitzgerald
- Allan ArbusDanny
- Wilford BrimleyFarmer
- Will HareGus
- Basil HoffmanToland
Recommendations
- 90
The New York Times
Invigorating. - 80
Newsweek
In THE ELECTRIC HORSEMAN, they're at their most golden, ethical and sexy. This ability to make right-mindedness so seductive, stylish and debonair is what makes The Electric Horseman such a sweet and beguiling movie. [17 Dec 1979, p.112] - 75
Chicago Sun-Times
If The Electric Horseman has a flaw, it's that the movie's so warm and cozy it can hardly be electrifying. The director, Sydney Pollack, gives us solid entertainment, but he doesn't take chances and he probably didn't intend to. - 70
Variety
Even though Redford, as an ex-rodeo champ, and Fonda don’t create the romantic sparks that might be expected, it’s their dramatic professionalism that salvages Horseman and makes it a moving and effective film by the time the final credits roll by. - 63
Christian Science Monitor
With its good intentions and likable demeanor, The Electric Horseman is an engaging but minor movie. It makes another amiable and thoughtful vehicle for two of our most charismatic stars, while never quite entering the world of action and ideas that hover just beyond the horsey humor and tumbling tumbleweeds of the story. - 50
TV Guide Magazine
The third teaming of Redford and Fonda (after "The Chase" and "Barefoot in the Park"), HORSEMAN falls far short of what it might have been, starting out smart but getting sloppier and more sentimental as it goes along. - 50
Time Out
Beguilingly sharp at first, but the later stages, with Fonda's toughie reporter tagging along for a story but going all mushy inside, wallow in sentimentality about integrity, ecology and all that jazz. - 40
Washington Post
No need to buy a Christmas present for Redford and Fonda this year. They've already made a movie calculated to smother each other in garlands of self-congratulation. [21 Dec 1989, p.C1]
