(Sydney Pollack, US 1979, 121 min., 35mm)
Broken-down rodeo champion Sonny Steele (Redford) is reduced to shilling cereal for his corporate bosses in a jeweled cowboy outfit braided with flashing lights. When Sonny is confronted with a mistreated horse at a Las Vegas event, however, he has reached his limit and publicly rides the horse out of the casino and down the strip. He is pursued by television reporter Hallie Martin (Jane Fonda), who smells a story about the last outlaw in the west. On the road to a place where he can release the horse, Sonny and Hallie’s admiration for each other grows, but the police and the company are on their heels, and time is running out for Sonny to find a place for the horse to be free. Reuniting Redford and Fonda twelve years after Barefoot in the Park, the film is also filled with charming character performances from Wilford Brimley, Valerie Perrine, and Willie Nelson, with the latter providing his unique renditions of “Midnight Rider” and “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys.”