Rating: PG
Genre: Comedy Drama
Release Date: 05/06/2003
SubTitles: French/Espanol
Dubbed: English
Sound: DD2
Run Time: 121 Minutes
Flags: Adult Situations, Questionable for Children, Adult Language
Distributor/Studio: Universal Studios

A cowboy-turned-huckster unexpectedly finds love as he tries to regain his self-respect in this romantic comedy drama. Sonny Steele (Robert Redford) is a one-time rodeo star whose career as a cowboy has ground to a halt. He makes a good living as a spokesman for Ranch Breakfast, a sugar-coated cereal for kids, but he's lost most of his self-respect in the process; his boss, corporate mogul Hunt Sears (John Saxon), considers him a property rather than a human being, and Sonny has developed a serious problem with alcohol. Sears' cereal company is negotiating a highly profitable merger with another firm and brings Sonny to Las Vegas for a publicity stunt, in which Sonny, wearing a garish cowboy outfit complete with blinking lights, will ride on-stage at Caesar's Palace aboard prize-winning thoroughbred stallion Rising Star. When Sonny discovers Sears' men have drugged the horse so that it will be able to walk on an injured leg, he's appalled, and he rides Rising Star off the stage at Caesar's and into the Nevada desert, looking for grazing land where he and the horse can heal their wounds. Sears is shocked to discover that Sonny has run off with a 12 million dollars, and he realizes that Sonny knows enough to make his firm look very bad in the press, potentially scotching the merger. Sears files charges against Sonny and posts a reward for Rising Star's safe return, though he implies that it wouldn't bother him if Sonny died in the rescue attempt. Hallie Martin (Jane Fonda), a television journalist covering Sonny's Vegas appearance, is convinced that something is fishy and manages to catch up with him in the desert; as Hallie tries to get Sonny to tell her his story, the has-been cowboy and the city-girl reporter fall in love. The Electric Horseman also stars Valerie Perrine and Willie Nelson; the country & western star made his screen debut in this film and has a very memorable line about tequila and trailer hitches.

~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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Cast:
Robert Redford - Sonny Steele
Jane Fonda - Hallie Martin
Valerie Perrine - Charlotta
John Saxon - Hunt Sears
Willie Nelson - Wendell
Allan Arbus - Danny Miles
Nicolas Coster - Fitzgerald
Wilford Brimley - Farmer
Will Hare - Gus Atwater
Basil Hoffman - Toland
Timothy Scott - Leroy
James B. Sikking - Dietrich
James Kline - Tommy
Frank Speiser - Bernie
Quinn K. Redeker - Bud Broderick
Lois Areno - Joanna Camden
Sarah Harris - Lucinda
Tasha Zemrus - Louise
James Novak - Dennis
Patricia Blair -
Sylvie Strauss -

Production:
Sydney Pollack - Director
Raymond Stark - Producer
Dave Grusin - Composer
Sheldon Kahn - Editor
Robert Garland Alvin Sargent Paul Gaer - Screen Writer
Mary Olivia Swanson - Set Designer
Dennis Washington - Art Director
Ronald L. Schwary - Associate Producer
Owen Roizman - Cinematographer
Bernie Pollack - Costume Designer
Stephen B. Grimes - Production Designer
Paul Gaer - Screen Story
Robert Garland - Screen Story
Willie Nelson - Singer
Gordon Davidson - Sound Editor
Augie Lohman - Special Effects
Shelly Burton - Short Story Author

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1979 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie