Movie · 1979 · Drama, Romance, Comedy, Western · 2h 2m · PG · English
Curator score: 4.7/10 (17.7K ratings)
He's a washed-up loser. But sometimes losers can be heroes...
Overview
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 class="h-100"2 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.
Ratings
Curator score: 4.7/10
IMDb: 6.5/10
Letterboxd: 3.52/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 62%
Metacritic: 64
TMDB: 6.1/10
Director
Sydney Pollack
Production
Columbia Pictures, Universal Pictures, Rastar Productions, Wildwood Enterprises
Cast
Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, Valerie Perrine, Willie Nelson, John Saxon, Nicolas Coster, Allan Arbus, Wilford Brimley, Will Hare, Basil Hoffman, Timothy Scott, James B. Sikking, James Kline, Frank Speiser, Quinn K. Redeker, Lois Hamilton, Sarah Harris, Tasha Zemrus, James Novak, Debra L. Maxwell
Curator Review
Verdict
A breezy, offbeat 1970s star vehicle that mixes romance, road-movie momentum, and a sincere animal-rights streak. It’s uneven, but the charm of Redford and Fonda, plus Sydney Pollack’s dusty, tactile style, makes it an easy recommendation for viewers who like character-driven genre hybrids.
Best for
fans of 1970s star-driven dramas
viewers who like romantic chase stories
people drawn to Western-adjacent road movies
audiences interested in animal welfare themes
fans of laid-back but glossy studio filmmaking
Skip if
you want a tightly plotted thriller
you dislike mellow, shaggy 70s pacing
you need a pure Western with traditional genre rules
you prefer romance with more emotional intensity
you’re not in the mood for a light, slightly sentimental tone
Overview
The Electric Horseman is one of those late-70s studio movies that feels both polished and a little unruly. Sydney Pollack gives the film a sun-baked, lived-in texture, and the premise has a wonderfully absurd edge: a washed-up rodeo hero turned corporate mascot who decides to steal the horse and make a point. That tension between spectacle and conscience gives the movie its spark.
Worth noting
Robert Redford is ideally cast as a man whose charisma has been commodified, while Jane Fonda brings bite and momentum as the reporter who starts out chasing a story and ends up chasing something more personal. The romance is easygoing rather than torrid, but the chemistry works because the film understands these two as opposites with shared instincts for defiance.
Bottom line
It’s not a masterpiece of structure, and some of the comedy and melodrama feel of their era, but the movie’s mood is hard to resist. If you like 1970s films that are a little shaggy, a little idealistic, and very committed to their stars, this is a rewarding watch.
Top Letterboxd reviews
eely (5★) · 413 likes
the fact that robert redford bought the horse that played rising star and owned him for 18 years until he died kind of makes me want to do backflips into the grand canyon
eely (5★) · 312 likes
robert redford is my light up animal rights activist alcoholic cowboy and this movie is everything I could ever want and that’s just all I have to say about it
eely (5★) · 214 likes
name something more chaotic good than an alcoholic cowboy finding out a multimillion dollar horse is being mistreated so he straps on a purple light up rodeo suit and rides the horse on the las vegas strip into the desert to set him free
eely (5★) · 158 likes
I had a cameo in this movie as the girl at the gas station counter who says “you must be a capricorn” when robert redford comes in and asks for 70 boxes of eucalyptus tea for his horse. a fun bit of trivia about this movie that is definitely true and definitely not something I made up to fuel a fantasy.
charlotte (3.5★) · 136 likes
cowboy robert redford and investigative reporter jane fonda in a hate to love romance? uh yeah