Sunday, 23 April 2023

The Electric Horseman (1979 Sydney Pollack)

I don't know why this was off radar - if I'd realised it was about a waning cowboy star stealing / saving a racehorse I'm sure I would have been there earlier. Robert Garland and Paul Gaer adapted Shelly Burton's story. I think the title has always put me off, because I didn't understand it.

Features megawatt star chemistry between Robert Redford and Jane Fonda. The horse, we are disappointed to note, is not credited.

Well directed film has a good, fast momentum, well edited by Sheldon Khan and photographed by Owen Roizman. The music's from Willie Nelson.

With Valerie Perrine, John Saxon (Black Christmas, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Joe Kidd, The Reluctant Debutante), Willie Nelson, Nicolas Coster, Allan Arbus (lots on TV including MASH), Wilford Brimley. And - blink and you'll miss him - Pollack himself.



Pollack was always an interesting director. He worked his way in from television - his first feature was The Slender Thread in 1965 with Sidney Poitier and Anne Bancroft. My favourite's Three Days of the Condor.

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