The theme of Sydney Pollack's "The Electric Horseman" is essentially the same as that of Clint Eastwood's "Bronco Billy", which came out a year later- the way in which the myth of the Wild West continued to influence American culture in the late twentieth century. As one might expect, however, from two very different directors, they treat the theme in different ways. "Bronco Billy" is essentially a patriotic film celebrating the way in which America, today as in the days of the Old West, allows its citizens to reinvent themselves, to be whatever they want to be. "The Electric Horseman", perhaps unsurprisingly given that it was directed by one great Hollywood liberal and starred two others, Robert Redford and Jane Fonda, approaches the subject from a more left-wing, anti-capitalist viewpoint. In Eastwood's film the cowboy remains a symbol of freedom and individualism; Pollack's film explores the way in which this symbol has been appropriated by the conformist, corporatist culture of Big Business.
Norman "Sonny" Steele is a former championship rodeo rider who now makes his living advertising a brand of breakfast cereal on behalf of a business conglomerate. He has a lucrative contract, which requires him to do little other than make promotional appearances, but has become a cynical, disillusioned alcoholic, haunted by the thought that he has sold out to big business and that his life has become meaningless. The film's title refers to the fact that on his public appearances Sonny is required to wear a ridiculous cowboy costume covered in electric light bulbs.
The crux of the film comes when Sonny is due to make an appearance in Las Vegas together with Rising Star, a champion racehorse. He discovers that the horse is injured and has been drugged, and on impulse decides to steal it and release it in a remote canyon where herds of wild horses live. He is pursued by the police, and also by Hallie Martin, a television reporter eager for a scoop. Hallie succeeds in catching up with Sonny, and the two fall in love.
Besides "Bronco Billy", the film also has similarities with Sam Peckinpah's "Convoy", another film from the late seventies set in the American West. The traditional Western had gone into something of a decline in this period, but both these films can be seen as "modern Westerns", especially if truck drivers can be seen as a twentieth-century equivalent of the cowboy. Both films also celebrate an ethos of individual freedom and distrust of authority, whether that authority be the legally-constituted authority of the State or the financial authority conferred by corporate wealth. Sonny releases the horse because he identifies its plight with his own; by freeing it he symbolically attains his own freedom.
Like "Convoy", "The Electric Horseman" features some striking photography of the desert landscapes of the West. It also features some fine acting, especially from Redford, who was one of Pollack's favourite actors; they also worked together in several other films, including "The Way We Were" and "Out of Africa". There are a few plot-holes; like another reviewer I thought that it was odd that Sonny, having rescued an injured horse from its owners, then proceeds to ride it hard across open country in his escape attempt. (Wouldn't that exacerbate its injury?) The film, however, was obviously not intended as a realistic story but rather as a symbolic allegory of the freedom for which both the cowboy and the untamed horse stand as symbols. As such it works very well. 7/10
Norman "Sonny" Steele is a former championship rodeo rider who now makes his living advertising a brand of breakfast cereal on behalf of a business conglomerate. He has a lucrative contract, which requires him to do little other than make promotional appearances, but has become a cynical, disillusioned alcoholic, haunted by the thought that he has sold out to big business and that his life has become meaningless. The film's title refers to the fact that on his public appearances Sonny is required to wear a ridiculous cowboy costume covered in electric light bulbs.
The crux of the film comes when Sonny is due to make an appearance in Las Vegas together with Rising Star, a champion racehorse. He discovers that the horse is injured and has been drugged, and on impulse decides to steal it and release it in a remote canyon where herds of wild horses live. He is pursued by the police, and also by Hallie Martin, a television reporter eager for a scoop. Hallie succeeds in catching up with Sonny, and the two fall in love.
Besides "Bronco Billy", the film also has similarities with Sam Peckinpah's "Convoy", another film from the late seventies set in the American West. The traditional Western had gone into something of a decline in this period, but both these films can be seen as "modern Westerns", especially if truck drivers can be seen as a twentieth-century equivalent of the cowboy. Both films also celebrate an ethos of individual freedom and distrust of authority, whether that authority be the legally-constituted authority of the State or the financial authority conferred by corporate wealth. Sonny releases the horse because he identifies its plight with his own; by freeing it he symbolically attains his own freedom.
Like "Convoy", "The Electric Horseman" features some striking photography of the desert landscapes of the West. It also features some fine acting, especially from Redford, who was one of Pollack's favourite actors; they also worked together in several other films, including "The Way We Were" and "Out of Africa". There are a few plot-holes; like another reviewer I thought that it was odd that Sonny, having rescued an injured horse from its owners, then proceeds to ride it hard across open country in his escape attempt. (Wouldn't that exacerbate its injury?) The film, however, was obviously not intended as a realistic story but rather as a symbolic allegory of the freedom for which both the cowboy and the untamed horse stand as symbols. As such it works very well. 7/10