Electric Horseman

The movie itself is a definite 4 of 5. The transfer rates about a 3.

It is, however, a bare-bones edition. Not even a main menu. Just scene selection and the movie.


A REDFORD CLASSIC   February 12, 2004
In THE ELECTRIC HORSEMAN Robert Redford plays Sonny Steele, an aging all-around champion rodeo cowboy who, as the result of numerous injuries and losing step with rodeo, has lost his vision and become a corporate spokesman for a cereal company. He somehow puts up with a lifestyle that, while making him rich beyond his dreams, has reduced him to nothing more than a poster boy. When Steele discovers that the company has purchased a classic racehorse, Rising Star, and is determined to do the same thing to the horse as they have done to him, doping it up and dragging it down in the process, he decides to save the horse's dignity and in the process saves himself as well.

Redford's performance is wonderful and spontaneous. Jane Fonda shines as a TV reporter bent on getting a story at any cost and in the end gets the cowboy too. Together Redford and Fonda pack the screen with a chemistry that quite literally mesmerizes every viewer.

Willie Nelson is terrific as a Steele handler and contributes with some of his best musical offerings and look for an early Wilford Brimley cameo.

Buy this one for the soundtrack alone. I keep hoping that one of these days Willie Nelson fans and lovers of the classic western harmonica tracks in this one will stage some sort of a revolt to get it released. Until then the movie's the next best thing.

Douglas McAllister


BEWARE!!!   January 31, 2004
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

Don't buy the 2003 Universal Edition of this DVD. Instead, sift through the web and find the DVD released by Image Entertainment in 1998. Why? You'd be better off asking "what's in a song?"

The latest version has omitted Willie Nelson's "My Heroe's Have Always Been Cowboys" in favor of some generic faux-Western instrumental. The song was played during the opening credits and when Sonny releases Rising Star into the wild. When I watched the new version (not knowing there was a new version), I was left emotionally flat by the experience, but I couldn't figure out why. Finally, I dug up an old VHS version I'd taped off of cable several years ago and realized the change.

Call it song as metaphor, song as objective correlative...call it any theoretical term you need to. MAYBE it would not matter to a person who'd never seen the original. But I think it would (somehow). The song captures those two moments of the film -- the song makes an emotional connection. The image and the sound, the joyful melancholy, all gel perfectly.

Why'd they change it? Who knows. The rest of Willie Nelson's songs remain on the soundtrack. I tend to think that the dimwits in charge of "product" treat these films like, uh, product. The battle of art versus commerce rages on...

It matters. And I'm sick of the culture industry manipulating music and movies that have affected me.


"My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" missing   July 17, 2003
C. Kahn (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

Advantage over old Image DVD: solid 16x9 anamorphic transfer.

Disadvantage over old Image DVD: Willie Nelson song "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" has been removed from the opening and Rising Star's final scene. It has been replaced with a less effective, generic-sounding piece of music.

"My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" was in the theatrical release, in the ABC broadcast and on the Image DVD. I don't know if the omission is due to a technical screwup (like Universal's misframing of the "Back to the Future" sequels) or for rights issues (maybe AMPco had it removed), but the opening montage is much weaker without it. I hope the filmmakers are aware that this change has been made for this DVD release.


A Classic   February 15, 2003
Michael DENNISUK (trenton, michigan USA)
There is something at the core of this tale of redemption that tugs at me each time I watch it. It is a story of fallen champions and their search for a new beginning. Sidney Pollack is an outstanding director. He successfully weaves several themes - the role of the news media in our culture, man vs. machine, corporation vs. individual - with the Redford/ Fonda romance. The acting is subtle and strong , including the many outstanding supporting performances (Nelson, Perrine, Saxxon, Brimley, etc). The photography is breathtaking. This movie is about finding the goodness in yourself and others.