The Electric Horseman
Encyclopedia
The Electric Horseman is a 1979 adventure
and romance
feature film starring Robert Redford
and Jane Fonda
and directed by Sydney Pollack
. It was the third time Redford and Fonda starred together in a feature film, having previously teamed on The Chase
(1966) and Barefoot in the Park
(1967).
) is a former championship rodeo
rider who has sold out to a business conglomerate and is now reduced to making public appearances to sell a brand of breakfast cereal
. Prior to making a Las Vegas
promotional appearance to ride the champion thoroughbred
race horse Rising Star, Sonny discovers the horse has been drugged and is injured.
Identifying with the plight of the horse and disillusioned with the present state of his life, Sonny decides to abscond with Rising Star and travel cross-country in order to release him in a remote canyon where herds of wild horses roam. Hallie Martin (Jane Fonda
), a television reporter
eager to be the first to break the Rising Star story, locates Sonny and follows him on his unusual quest through the countryside. While en route, the unlikely pair have a romance as they avoid the pursuing authorities.
, who had previously directed Redford in This Property Is Condemned
(1966), Jeremiah Johnson
(1972), The Way We Were
(1973) and Three Days of the Condor
(1975), and later in Out of Africa (1985) and Havana
(1990). Pollack had also previously directed Fonda in They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969). With most of the action taking place outdoors, the movie was filmed on location in Nevada
, Utah
and Zion National Park
. It was only the second film performance of character actor
Wilford Brimley
, who would later team with Redford in The Natural
(1984).
The Electric Horseman is noted as being the debut acting performance of long-time country and western singer Willie Nelson
, who plays the role of Wendell Hickson. According to Pollack, Nelson improvised most of his dialogue in the film. In addition to co-starring, Nelson contributed significantly to the film's soundtrack as well, singing five songs including "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys
", "Midnight Rider
," "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys," "So You Think You're a Cowboy" and "Hands on the Wheel." Pollack would later be executive producer for Nelson's 1980 starring vehicle Honeysuckle Rose
.
Released on December 21, 1979, the film did strong box office business earning $30 million in the United States. The film was nominated for an Academy Award in 1980 for Best Sound (Arthur Piantadosi
, Les Fresholtz
, Michael Minkler
and Al Overton, Jr.
). The Electric Horseman has since been released on VHS
, Laserdisc
and DVD
.
The film was co-produced by Columbia Pictures
and Universal Pictures
, and distributed by Columbia in the US and Universal overseas, though the US rights would later revert to Universal.
Adventure film
Adventure films are a genre of film.Unlike pure, low-budget action films they often use their action scenes preferably to display and explore exotic locations in an energetic way....
and romance
Romance film
Romance films are love stories that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate involvement of the main characters and the journey that their love takes through courtship or marriage. Romance films make the love story or the search for love the main plot focus...
feature film starring Robert Redford
Robert Redford
Charles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...
and Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...
and directed by Sydney Pollack
Sydney Pollack
Sydney Irwin Pollack was an American film director, producer and actor. Pollack studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City, where he later taught acting...
. It was the third time Redford and Fonda starred together in a feature film, having previously teamed on The Chase
The Chase (1966 film)
The Chase is a 1966 American drama film directed by Arthur Penn, about a series of events set into motion by a prison break. Since one of the two escapees is Charlie "Bubber" Reeves , the escape causes a stir in a nearby town where Bubber is a well-known figure.The film deals with themes of racism...
(1966) and Barefoot in the Park
Barefoot in the Park
This article is about the Broadway production. For the film adaptation see Barefoot in the Park .Barefoot in the Park is a romantic comedy by Neil Simon. The original Broadway production, directed by Mike Nichols, opened October 23, 1963, with the four lead roles taken by actors Elizabeth Ashley ,...
(1967).
Plot
Sonny Steele (Robert RedfordRobert Redford
Charles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...
) is a former championship rodeo
Rodeo
Rodeo is a competitive sport which arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain, Mexico, and later the United States, Canada, South America and Australia. It was based on the skills required of the working vaqueros and later, cowboys, in what today is the western United States,...
rider who has sold out to a business conglomerate and is now reduced to making public appearances to sell a brand of breakfast cereal
Breakfast cereal
A breakfast cereal is a food made from processed grains that is often, but not always, eaten with the first meal of the day. It is often eaten cold, usually mixed with milk , water, or yogurt, and sometimes fruit but sometimes eaten dry. Some cereals, such as oatmeal, may be served hot as porridge...
. Prior to making a Las Vegas
Las Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
promotional appearance to ride the champion thoroughbred
Thoroughbred
The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word thoroughbred is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed...
race horse Rising Star, Sonny discovers the horse has been drugged and is injured.
Identifying with the plight of the horse and disillusioned with the present state of his life, Sonny decides to abscond with Rising Star and travel cross-country in order to release him in a remote canyon where herds of wild horses roam. Hallie Martin (Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...
), a television reporter
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
eager to be the first to break the Rising Star story, locates Sonny and follows him on his unusual quest through the countryside. While en route, the unlikely pair have a romance as they avoid the pursuing authorities.
Production
The film was directed by Sydney PollackSydney Pollack
Sydney Irwin Pollack was an American film director, producer and actor. Pollack studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City, where he later taught acting...
, who had previously directed Redford in This Property Is Condemned
This Property is Condemned
This Property Is Condemned is a 1966 American drama film starring Natalie Wood, Robert Redford, Kate Reid, Charles Bronson and Mary Badham and directed by Sydney Pollack. The screenplay was written by Francis Ford Coppola, Fred Coe and Edith Sommer. The story was adapted from the 1946 one-act...
(1966), Jeremiah Johnson
Jeremiah Johnson
Jeremiah Johnson is a 1972 western film directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Robert Redford as the title character and Will Geer as "Bear Claw" Chris Lapp...
(1972), The Way We Were
The Way We Were
The Way We Were is a 1973 American romantic dramatic film co-starring Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford, directed by Sydney Pollack. The screenplay by Arthur Laurents was based on his college days at Cornell University and his experiences with the House Un-American Activities Committee.A box...
(1973) and Three Days of the Condor
Three Days of the Condor
Three Days of the Condor is a 1975 American action thriller film produced by Stanley Schneider and directed by Sydney Pollack. The screenplay, by Lorenzo Semple Jr...
(1975), and later in Out of Africa (1985) and Havana
Havana (film)
Havana is a drama film starring Robert Redford, Lena Olin and Raúl Juliá, directed by Sydney Pollack with music by Dave Grusin, and released in 1990. In the film, an American professional gambler named Jack Weil decides to visit Havana, Cuba to gamble. On the boat to Havana, he meets Roberta Duran...
(1990). Pollack had also previously directed Fonda in They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969). With most of the action taking place outdoors, the movie was filmed on location in Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
, Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
and Zion National Park
Zion National Park
Zion National Park is located in the Southwestern United States, near Springdale, Utah. A prominent feature of the park is Zion Canyon, which is 15 miles long and up to half a mile deep, cut through the reddish and tan-colored Navajo Sandstone by the North Fork of the Virgin River...
. It was only the second film performance of character actor
Character actor
A character actor is one who predominantly plays unusual or eccentric characters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a character actor as "an actor who specializes in character parts", defining character part in turn as "an acting role displaying pronounced or unusual characteristics or...
Wilford Brimley
Wilford Brimley
Allen Wilford Brimley is an American actor. He has appeared in such films as The China Syndrome, Cocoon, The Thing and The Firm. He had a recurring role on the 1970s television series The Waltons...
, who would later team with Redford in The Natural
The Natural (film)
The Natural is a 1984 film adaptation of Bernard Malamud's 1952 baseball novel of the same name, directed by Barry Levinson and starring Robert Redford, Glenn Close and Robert Duvall...
(1984).
The Electric Horseman is noted as being the debut acting performance of long-time country and western singer Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...
, who plays the role of Wendell Hickson. According to Pollack, Nelson improvised most of his dialogue in the film. In addition to co-starring, Nelson contributed significantly to the film's soundtrack as well, singing five songs including "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys
My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys (song)
"My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" is the title of a song from the soundtrack to the 1979 film The Electric Horseman, and which was released as a single in 1980. It was his first release in the 1980s. "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" was written by Sharon Vaughn and performed by Willie Nelson...
", "Midnight Rider
Midnight Rider
"Midnight Rider" is a popular and widely covered song by The Allman Brothers Band, from their album Idlewild South. Written by Gregg Allman and Robert Kim Payne, the song has become a fixture of the band's live performances and an enduring standard...
," "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys," "So You Think You're a Cowboy" and "Hands on the Wheel." Pollack would later be executive producer for Nelson's 1980 starring vehicle Honeysuckle Rose
Honeysuckle Rose
Honeysuckle Rose may refer to:*"Honeysuckle Rose" , 1928 jazz standard by Fats Waller and Andy Razaf*Honeysuckle Rose , 1980 movie starring Willie Nelson, Amy Irving, and Dyan Cannon*Honeysuckle Rose , the soundtrack to the film...
.
Released on December 21, 1979, the film did strong box office business earning $30 million in the United States. The film was nominated for an Academy Award in 1980 for Best Sound (Arthur Piantadosi
Arthur Piantadosi
Arthur Piantadosi was an American sound engineer. He won an Academy Award for Best Sound and was nominated for six more in the same category. He worked on over 80 films between 1967 and 1986.-Selected filmography:...
, Les Fresholtz
Les Fresholtz
Les Fresholtz was an American sound engineer. He won two Academy Awards for Best Sound and was nominated for ten more in the same category. He worked on over 110 films between 1968 and 1996.-Selected filmography:...
, Michael Minkler
Michael Minkler
Michael Minkler is a Motion Picture Sound Re-Recording Mixer. His Oscars are for the work done on Dreamgirls, Chicago and Black Hawk Down, but Minkler has a varied career that includes films like Inglourious Basterds, JFK and Star Wars, as well television programs like The Pacific and John Adams...
and Al Overton, Jr.
Al Overton, Jr.
Al Overton, Jr. is an American sound engineer. He has been nominated for four Academy Awards in the category Best Sound. He has worked on over 40 films between 1969 and 1991...
). The Electric Horseman has since been released on VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
, Laserdisc
Laserdisc
LaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
and DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
.
The film was co-produced by Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
and Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
, and distributed by Columbia in the US and Universal overseas, though the US rights would later revert to Universal.
External links
- Analysis of The Electric Horseman at transparencynow.com
- The Electric Horseman reviews at Rotten TomatoesRotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...