An ex-world champion cowboy reduced to selling breakfast cereal steals away on a multi-million dollar racehorse, and a TV reporter sets out to find out why, only to fall in love with him.
Slow but entertaining before all the CGI non-sense. A must for Robert Redford and Willie Nelson fans!
Movie Reviews
BEWARE!!!
lostinoxford | oxford, ohio United States | 01/31/2004
(1 out of 5 stars)
"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
C. Kahn | Toronto, Ontario, Canada | 07/17/2003
(4 out of 5 stars)
"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."
Charmingly enjoyable.
dsrussell | Corona, CA. United States | 03/18/2000
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This is a movie I've pulled out many times when I've wanted to watch something light and carefree. Although it isn't one of Redford's best films (or even in his top 5...6...7...), it still has a certain something that's hard for me to pin down. I don't believe I would like it nearly as well if someone other than Redford had the starring role. Although Jane Fonda is very solid as the ambitious `pain-in-the-neck' news reporter, and Willy Nelson is surprisingly good in his supporting role (better yet, two or three of his songs run throughout the movie), it's Redford (and his boyish charm) that truly carries this film.If you've never seen this Redford/Pollack vehicle, there are some excellent reviews that outline the basic plot (especially the November 18th review). If you're looking for something to entertain you for a couple of hours, and aren't expecting a film classic, this one will do just fine, and maybe even surprise you. Enjoy it for the horse, for the western countryside, for the romance, or just for the plain, light-hearted fun of it. Between 1 and 10, "The Electric Horseman" gets a solid 7."
Very Excellent, Very Timeless, and VERY Fun
5/0 | 05/04/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
""The Electric Horseman" is Top-Drawer Redford. No one, anywhere, could have played Sonny Steele with even a tenth of the talent and showmanship and precision and exquisite timing as does Redford. Only Redford can portray a character as simultaneously offbeat, comical, confused, thoughtful, simple, complex and sad as Sonny Steele. No one but Redford's Sonny Steele could so accurately embody the honest pathos dwelling in Willie Nelson's "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow up to be Cowboys".
And beneath Redford's sterling performance is even more Fun. The fun-loving, free-wheeling style of the Independent Westerner juxtaposed against the rigidly organized Selfishness and Arrogance of Corproate America's "elite" is deliciously appropo. The consistant making of the sorry newspaper bimbo (Jane Fonda) look exactly like what she was, or had become, is priceless. The swing from a simple man of real heart and real honor "just trying to get back to himself" to a clever cowboy with easily enough nerve to ride someone's million-dollar horse down the Vegas strip and disappear right under their upturned noses is a delightfiul display of "real" winning over "fake" - the "Little Guy" deftly pulling the plug on America's Corporate People-shredder - a sight most of this country can thoroughly and wildly applaud. No, it couldn't really happen - but Redford makes it absolutely Grand Fun to pretend it could. And anyway... maybe ... just maybe, it could. We can always Hope!"
Funny, Romantic, and Dramatic... and Robert Redford!
Staci L. Wilson | USA | 12/29/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"When washed-up rodeo champion Sonny Steele (Robert Redford) steals a Quarterhorse named Rising Star (who's a similarly washed up former champ), he sets off on a cross-country adventure with the goal being to set the horse free. The law follows, as does a tenacious reporter (Jane Fonda) who gets more story than she bargained for. Wonderful story of redemption and the right to personal freedom.