THE ELECTRIC HORSEMAN
US, 1979, 120 minutes, Colour.
Jane Fonda, Robert Redford, Valerie Perrine, John Saxon, Willie Nelson, Wilford Brimley,
Directed by Sidney Pollack.
The Electric Horseman reminds us of Bless the Beasts and Children, but with more hope. Robert Redford, in one of his best performances, is a has-been drunken rodeo rider who has lost the strength of his American heritage and gained instant recognition in advertising breakfast food. In attempting to return a thoroughbred racehorse to nature
and freedom, he tries to assert and free himself and so becomes a kind of folk hero (at least for a week on the media). Jane Fonda as the TV reporter after a scoop is excellent. The contrast of Las Vegas artificiality and the Nevada and Utah open spaces is marked. The whole film has entertaining charm and hope.
1. The focus of the title, its significance? The tradition of the American West and the U.S. heritage? Freedom, pioneering, skill? A male role? The change to the modern, the artificial? The glitter of electricity? The change in pride of the horseman to the hack has-been rodeo rider? The electric horseman as an image - so much anonymity that the individual can be replaced?
2. The choice of Robert Redford as hero? His presence, charm? A symbol of the American male of the '70s? His acting ability, his matching Jane Fonda? A hero of the '70s?
3. The director and his work - the comparisons of They Shoot Horses, Don't They?' in 1969 and its pessimism with this film? The Panavision photography, the contrast of Las Vegas and the Nevada and Utah countryside? The artificial with the beautiful? The terrain and its open grandeur? A place for horses, freedom? The electric horseman's quest in these open spaces?
4. The contribution of the music, the songs, the significance of the lyrics and their placement throughout the film?
5. The contribution of the credits to the filling in of Sonny's background, his skill as a rodeo rider, his achievement? The themes of his success within the American context? Injury, failure, drinking, a has-been? The transition to the artificial world of big business and advertising? Wade and Leroy as his friends and companions? Their first-class accommodation and comfort for selling themselves and breakfast foods? The shopping centre sequences and audiences identifying with the people, the celebrity with the children, photos etc.? Sonny and his appearing at interval at rodeos? His face on so much advertising? The effort to get him to his performances - his drinking, getting dressed up, riding, falling off his horse? His ultimately being able to be done without?
6. The picture of Ampco: a multi-million dollar corporation, the business heads and their black suits and efficiency, ruthlessness, their presence in offices, hotel suites? Their double talk and pressurising people? The Las Vegas build-up and the use of Caesar's Palace, the atmosphere of the gambling, the shows? The heavy emphasis on the picturing of Las Vegas with its streets, lights? The business people behind it? The world of multi-million dollar mergers? Television interviews? Ampco and its advertising, personnel and their awards, the resources to search for Sonny, to influence the news, their use of the law? Ultimately Ampco being made to look a fool? The importance of the characterisation, especially John Saxon's presentation of the ruthless head? The P.R. man and his liaison work? The lawyers? Their working as a group? The film's ultimate judgment on business corporations?
7. The establishing of Sonny as a character - his work, failure, memories of the past, the arrival at Las Vegas and his meeting people, being rude to them e.g. with the photos? His being late for the television interview? The encounter with Charlotta? Her search for him, her talk, their reminiscences, wanting him to sign the papers? His response to her, the reason for signing? The interview later between Hallie and Charlotta and her observations on Sonny? The rehearsal for the show and the attitudes of the director - satirised? His reaction to the horse and the doping, his riding onstage, his riding away, through the streets and lights of Las Vegas and the lights going out?
8. Jane Fonda as Hallie: tough, a career woman, once married, ruthless in her seeking out of people? Asking him the questions at the interview, accosting him? The trouble she took to find out where he was, her techniques of wheedling information from Wade and Leroy? Her finding Gus, the encounter with Gus? (And the humorous characterising of Gus - and Sonny's later phone call to him to protect him?)
9. Hallie and her ability to track and find Sonny? His phone call to her and invitation to her? Their clash, the telling of the truth? His emphasis that it was his story? His telling her to make up any story she wanted? His decision to go on television - the irony of his long speech and her filming it and using it and the contrast with his prepared speech? Hallie's return, her encounter with the corporate bosses and defying them, with Charlotta? The build-up of an interaction between the two?
10. How much did Hallie and Sonny share in their trek and quest? The importance of the filming and its impact on television? Her going back to town, the encounter with the police, her return to warn him, her joining him in the chase, her telling him lies and his believing her? The hold-up in the town and her taking the truck and meting him later, the importance of Sonny's skill on the horse and eluding the police? The elaborate presentation of the chase? Their decision to walk through the countryside, Hallie and her gear and its later being thrown away, Sonny and his skill with the countryside? His care for the horse, his understanding of it, his helping to make it better? The encounter with the man with the phone and his helping with his truck and not taking the reward? Their moving further out into the landscapes of freedom? Their being lost?
11. How much did they share and change? The depths of understanding each other? Their lovemaking and its meaning? Walking and riding together? The depths of characterisation and interaction? The qualities of each as a human being?
12. The final impact of Jane Fonda's Hallie - as a woman who changed, shared in achievement? Her confession of the truth? Her being discovered? Her joy when she had been outwitted? Her going to Paris and the farewell to Sonny?
13. The freedom, the beauty of the canyon, the mustangs, the thoroughbred being released and free? As a sign and symbol for America in the '70s and 180s? The freedom for Sonny himself and for Hallie? The motivation for Sonny - compassion for the horse, its ability, freedom, to be with the mustangs? The visuals of the horses in the mountains?
14. The aftermath of the quest - Hallie and her world, the corporate men being made fools of, Sonny moving along the road with these memories?
15. How attractive a perception of America in the '70s, human nature, society, freedom?
