Electric Horseman (1979)

March 2024 · 6 minute read

I'm watching this movie on HBO now. Robert Redford still had his looks. I bet the HOMOS of 1979 must have drooled over him in that movie. He had the LOOK that was THE IDEAL at that time- The Marlboro Man look. Any DL Elders remember that movie when it premiered?

by Anonymousreply 24March 12, 2021 8:18 PM

NO...I have zero recollection of it.

by Anonymousreply 1February 12, 2021 2:32 AM

I remember it vaguely. I actually can't remember if my parents dragged me to it or went to see it on a night out by themselves, but I remember the ads, which had the two stars in a weird kind of tumbling clinch with their last names- REDFORD. FONDA. ELECTRIC. The movie did okay, I seem to remember. I definitely saw it and it's as forgettable as they come.

by Anonymousreply 2February 12, 2021 2:38 AM

[quote] I bet the HOMOS of 1979 must have drooled over him in that movie.

I bet 1979 was the year you became a teen grandparent.

by Anonymousreply 3February 12, 2021 2:50 AM

My parents dragged me to it. I barely recall anything about it.

by Anonymousreply 4February 12, 2021 2:59 AM

"Horseman" wasn't electric, but he still looked good in "Brubaker" the next year, and it was more interesting and entertaining.

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by Anonymousreply 5February 12, 2021 3:21 AM

No. I don't remember any collective lust for Redford. Neuman, Reynolds, Brando, even Elliot Gould were more...accessible. Redford was boring, straight, vanilla. From what I remember.

by Anonymousreply 6February 12, 2021 3:31 AM

Yes, it was fairly popular reuniting Fonda and Redford again. They played newlyweds in Barefoot in the Park (1967) and they played husband and wife in The Chase(1966) though Redford was on the run and they had no scenes together. For me Electric Horseman was tepid at best.

by Anonymousreply 7February 12, 2021 3:34 AM

I saw it. I haven't wanted to see it again.

by Anonymousreply 8February 12, 2021 3:45 AM

I saw it in the theater when it came out. I was drawn to it because it reunited Fonda and Redford, who first co-starred in the film version of the Broadway play "Barefoot in the Park." The screenplay for Barefoot was by Neil Simon, who adapted his play for the screen.

"Horseman" was directed by Sydney Pollack, who had worked with Fonda on "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" and with Redford on hit films like "Jeremiah Johnson," "The Way We Were" and "Three Days of the Condor." So he was deemed the perfect director to bring together again the two A-listers. The movie garnered generally positive reviews, including from critic Roger Ebert.

But "Horseman" also famously gave country singer Willie Nelson his first movie acting role and a new prominence with the hit song he and Waylon Jennings first recorded on their album "Waylon and Willie": "Mama, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys." The song got a lot of radio play on Country & Western stations long after the movie left theaters.

by Anonymousreply 9February 12, 2021 5:43 AM

Never saw it (though familiar with it) but does bring up a good question at what point had Redford significantly lost his looks? The Natural?

He still looked great accepting his Ordinary People Oscar. Without going to look up his filmography I think he took a bit of an acting break in the early 80s, and then returned with The Natural, where he wasn’t “prime looking Redford” anymore.

So I guess in that interim somewhere?

by Anonymousreply 10February 12, 2021 6:06 AM

Mary and Rhoda both loved Redford and Newman.

by Anonymousreply 12February 12, 2021 6:17 AM

R12- So did Edith Bunker.

by Anonymousreply 13February 12, 2021 6:43 AM

My father, now around 80 years old, loved this movie.

by Anonymousreply 14February 12, 2021 8:00 AM

I was fourteen and went to see it with a friend. I recall Redford looking good in his very snug jeans. What was weird is it seemed like a movie version of Glen Campbell’s song Rhinestone Cowboy, but it wasn’t in the movie.

by Anonymousreply 15February 12, 2021 8:03 AM

I remember that I was in Jr High when this came out - there was a heavy ad campaign for it - commercials ran constantly for it. He did look super in that movie. I remember Jane Fonda wore really tight jeans tucked into high heeled boots - that made her traipsingall over the terrain with Redford funny Ha. .... Redford kept his looks a long time but by the time he did Indecent Proposal he didn’t look that good. To me he didn’t hold onto his sex appeal as he aged. I think that Warren Beatty held his looks longer than Robert Redford.

by Anonymousreply 16February 12, 2021 8:10 AM

I was a teen but I found him so hot. I still have a poster of him on my wall hidden behind my office door!

by Anonymousreply 17February 12, 2021 8:18 AM

OP I saw it when it was first released and was bored out of my mind.

The only scene I remember was Jane Fonda answering a telephone call in her motel room. She sits up and covers her breasts with a sheet which I found odd because there was nobody else meant to be in the room so why would she do that?

by Anonymousreply 19February 12, 2021 9:37 AM

R19 Along with dialing with a pencil, I always cover my breasts with a sheet when in bed, some of us aren’t whores darling!

by Anonymousreply 20February 12, 2021 3:51 PM

I could not get over 43 year old Redford's bleach. GOD, what were they thinking?

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by Anonymousreply 21March 12, 2021 7:50 PM

This was not a "gay" film. Redford had been in movies so long he felt like an old man. No one went to that film because of his hotness. You need to back up ten or fifteen years for that.

by Anonymousreply 22March 12, 2021 7:55 PM

I just remember I always confused it with Comes a Horseman, which earned Richard Farnsworth a Supporting Actor nomination. I never saw either film nor did I have any interest in it.

Sorry, OP--stop trying to make "Electric Horseman" happen.

by Anonymousreply 23March 12, 2021 8:11 PM

This sounds like smut involving a motorized dildo.

by Anonymousreply 24March 12, 2021 8:18 PM

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