The Electric Horseman

Sonny Steele, five times a rodeo champion, is now the face of a breakfast cereal, appearing on stage in a suit covered in lights. On the night of a promotion he finds that the prize racehorse brought in for it has been drugged and is injured. He rides the horse straight out through a Las Vegas casino and off into the desert. The company comes after him, and the reporter Hallie Martin joins him, first for the story and then for the cause. Sydney Pollack directed, his fifth film with Robert Redford. Redford plays Sonny and Jane Fonda plays Hallie. Dave Grusin wrote the music and Willie Nelson appears in his first acting role. It was shot in Nevada and Utah between late 1978 and early 1979, with script revisions and weather stretching the schedule. One detail grew notorious: a twenty-second kissing scene took forty-eight takes and cost 280,000 dollars. It opened on 21 December 1979 and took 61.8 million dollars domestically against a 12.5 million budget. The reviews were mixed, with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert singling out the chemistry between the leads. Who it is for: viewers who like the star pairings of the seventies and one man against a corporation. Who it is not for: anyone wanting tension. The chase is slack and most of the film is conversation along the way.