What exactly are we looking at?
69 gone terribly wrong? A prequel to The Human Centipede?
Nope, just one of the oddest movie posters of all time.
This was the main image used to advertise THE ELECTRIC HORSEMAN, a now almost-completely-forgotten star vehicle for Robert Redford and Jane Fonda released at Christmas time in 1979.
What was the film about? Allow me to copy and paste…
Norman “Sonny” Steele is a former rodeo champion now reduced to making public appearances to sell a brand of breakfast cereal. Prior to a Las Vegas promotional appearance riding the company’s mascot, a $12 million champion thoroughbred, he discovers the horse has been injured and drugged.
Disillusioned with the present state of his life, Sonny decides to abscond with the horse and travel cross-country in order to release him in a remote canyon where herds of wild horses roam. Hallie Martin, a television reporter eager to break the story, locates and follows Sonny on his quest. While en route, the unlikely couple starts a romance as they avoid the pursuing authorities.
You can tell it’s the 1970’s because corporate evil is just a breakfast cereal and intrusive media is a rogue lady reporter with a hunch.
Of course, this image tells us absolutely nada about the actual story. And that was sort of the point. The story was irrelevant. This was a big star vehicle at a time when putting together two big names – REDFORD…FONDA, as the poster shouts, no first names necessary – was the real bottom line. Movie stars were everything. Even the title of the movie was irrelevant! ELECTRIC! Forget the Horseman part. Who cares about the horse? Who wants to see a movie about a junkie horse anyway? Do you wanna’ see two beautiful people with their faces buried in each other’s crotch? Damn right you do. So line up already!
It feels cynical and very quaint at the same time.
But effective: it definitely catches your eye, piques your curiosity…
The shot/position depicted is part of a sequence where Redford and Fonda tussle. This half-sheet fills in the rest:
I don’t recall what happens next, but I’m pretty sure Redford doesn’t slam her down in a pile-driver hold and leave her for dead.
No, these folks are just letting their sexual tension turn playfully violent. This happened a lot in the 70’s, kids… You had to be there.
Part of me misses when iconic actors and the chemistry between them were a huge part of what made movies so special… Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. In this case, the result was a B+ at best. Two diverting if not incredibly memorable hours – but if you stumbled onto it on TCM at 2 am, you’d probably make some raisin toast and stick with it till the end. Because at least the star system meant stories about adult relationships and adult problems, with people actually talking to each other. Is it me or does that seem refreshing right now?
Sydney Pollack, the director here, once said that no matter the genre every single film he ever made was a love story. The Way We Were and Out Of Africa are obvious, but even his spy thriller Three Days Of The Condor has a romance between Redford and the woman he takes hostage, Faye Dunaway. (Kidnapping was also sort of hot in the 70’s – try not to judge) He was fascinated by the push and pull, the dance, the tussle between men and women. He saw it as the central story around which all other plot revolves, because that’s the one story everyone can see themselves in. And movie stars like Redford & Fonda were our love surrogates, our better-looking bigger-than-life avatars. We slipped them on like a rental tux, found comfort in their glamour, and followed them loyally from movie to movie.
That kind of stardom was starting to fade even in ’79…and doesn’t really exist today. Spectacle is the star now. How many superheroes and CGI effects can you cram into one scene? It’s BIG alright, just less and less recognizable as life. Look at the hyped pairing of Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt in Passengers – the spectacle was fine, the chemistry and connection was a no-show.
The reason I thought of all this – and this weird poster – was because I just watched these two in one of their earliest films together, Barefoot In The Park, and followed it with what is likely their final pairing, Our Souls At Night, on Netflix. It was a shocking bit of time travel. The first was fast, funny and sexy – for a Neil Simon play; the latter slow, somber and funereal.
Such is the circle of life. Even for movie stars.
This was the “couple” in 1967…
And in 2017…
Redford says he is retiring soon. Fonda has a new movie out this week, Book Club, which looks like it might just be a sleeper hit.
Years ago, both walked away from acting at the peak of their career. Redford created Sundance. Fonda created…Jazzercize.
Redford probably has the most memorable films overall, but Fonda is having the better “Third Act”. She seems to have aged with grace and style, adjusted to each new stage of life with realism, humility. Redford has remained hamstrung by vanity and ego, never really stretched himself as an actor. He directed many films, but only 1 1/2 of them are great (Ordinary People, Quiz Show). He won and deserved the Best Director Oscar for the former, but never did win for acting. Fonda won two acting Oscars, produced but never directed.
When they die, there will be lots of tributes and talk about what they represented – the last of the “real” movie stars.
Young people will shrug.
The Electric Horseman won’t even be mentioned.
And the horse, he’s been dead for decades. Wha’d I tell ya’? It was never about the horse.
–RR
UPDATE: I probably have too few posts and too many updates on those few posts, but a couple days after posting this I discovered Starz Western channel happened to be showing The Electric Horseman. I watched it and was pleasantly surprised. Yes, it was as slight as I remembered, but it held up surprisingly well. In the second half, when the now-dated satire of the premise gives way to a quiet two-hander between the stars it really begins to sing. The dialogue by Pollack’s go-to script doctor, David Rayfiel – instantly recognizable to this fan – is clever and romantic without being smarmy. But best of all, Jane Fonda is really wonderful. She gives a much more natural and vulnerable performance than I remembered. Her hesitant first kiss with Redford is a master class in acting all by itself. And the release of the horse at the end is genuinely stirring – just a great “movie moment”. Overall, I recommend you check it out if you do happen to stumble onto it late at night while making raisin toast. It’s a relic of another time, yes, but a warm one. A feel-good memento from the late great Sydney Pollack.