Amazon.com Essentials:
When this picture came out in 1979, both Robert Redford and Jane Fonda
were
at the height of their stardom; in fact, this movie was so big, it took two
studios (Columbia and Universal) to make it. Redford plays Sonny Steele,
champion rodeo rider turned corporate spokesman (and perpetual drunk).
When
he discovers that another corporate asset, a racehorse, is just like
him--dressed like a buffoon and doped up to the gills--he decides to
liberate the animal. Redford's grumpy, wise, and funny performance
demonstrates why he was (and is) such a big star (and why director Sydney
Pollack made seven movies with him). Fonda is fine as the bright,
ambitious, frightened TV reporter whose pursuit of a story pitches her
headlong into love. The ending may seem anticlimatic (the big comedy chase
comes in the middle of the film), but this is much more a romance story
than
a chase film. From the beginning, there's little doubt how the story will
end (although even then, the movie throws us a little curve), but the movie
compensates with sheer star power; Redford and Fonda are all that matter,
and in this case they
deliver, along with Willie Nelson's fine performance in a pivotal
supporting role. --Geof Miller
