Man meets horse, man steals horse, man gets laid, horse gets freed. Everyone happy in the end (even the bad-guy corporation). Simple, effective. One of the best performances ever by Redford. And one of the best chase scenes anywhere, anytime. The best thing about this film is its quiet humour. It keeps throwing out these curve balls just at the right time to surprise you and charm you. In between, it takes potshots at just about everyone. First, the cowboys and the way they have (especially in Hollywood) too often allowed themselves to be made into a product - think of Roy Rogers and the Cisco Kid et al, all gussied up in the campest outfits you can imagine. (Hollywood made the West gay LONG before Brokeback Mountain hit the screen!) Next it takes on the big corporations, which (once again) only care about money and don't care who or what they exploit in order to get it. This is in fact the easiest potshot in the film, cause there is nothing really new here. And I can't really imagine a corpoation allowing itself to just say good-bye to a 12 million dollar horse. Finally, it also takes a shot at the media, who are just as bad as the corporations (since they ARE corporations usually) and the journalists who are (almost) ready to sell their souls for a good story. Nevertheless, with Redford and Fonda it works. The film tends to drag a bit near the end when they are camping out, and the requisite falling in love is a bit pat, but it isn't overdone and well, why not? The entire film is pretty much unbelievable, but it IS entertaining, and that's all it really expects to be. And above all, the chase scene is worth the price of admission.
Review of The Electric Horseman
