Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #79607 in DVD
• Released on: 1998-05-06
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 120 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
When this picture came out in 1979, both Robert Redford and Jane Fonda were at the height of their stardom; in fact, this movie was so big, it took two studios (Columbia and Universal) to make it. Redford plays Sonny Steele, champion rodeo rider turned corporate spokesman (and perpetual drunk). When he discovers that another corporate asset, a racehorse, is just like him--dressed like a buffoon and doped up to the gills--he decides to liberate the animal. Redford's grumpy, wise, and funny performance demonstrates why he was (and is) such a big star (and why director Sydney Pollack made seven movies with him). Fonda is fine as the bright, ambitious, frightened TV reporter whose pursuit of a story pitches her headlong into love. The ending may seem anticlimatic (the big comedy chase comes in the middle of the film), but this is much more a romance story than a chase film. From the beginning, there's little doubt how the story will end (although even then, the movie throws us a little curve), but the movie compensates with sheer star power; Redford and Fonda are all that matter, and in this case they deliver, along with Willie Nelson's fine performance in a pivotal supporting role. --Geof Miller

Customer Reviews

BEWARE!!!
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
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.
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.