A retired rodeo cowboy now makes his living as a spokes model for a cereal company. He hates it and spends most of time drinking and showing up late to personal appearances.
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At a big convention in Las Vegas he's supposed to ride out on a thouroghbred champion race horse. After seeing how the horse is being treated, the cowboy steals him and escapes into the mountainous terrain with plans to set him free in a special canyon.
Having tried and failed to get an interview with the cowboy, a nosey reporter sets out to track him down and get her story. She initially plans to stop him, but she helps him escape from the police and the cereal company and she eventually falls in love with him.
They elude law enforcement, get the horse to the secret canyon and set him free in a herd of wild horses.
The review of this Movie prepared by Brandon Swenson
Robert Redford plays Sonny Steele, an ex-rodeo champ who, as spokesperson for a cereal company, has his face on every box. “Actually you're more famous now than when you competed,” his corporate bosses remind him.
Before a Las Vegas trade show, he locks horns with Allie Martin (Jane Fonda), a feisty local reporter eager for her big break. At the show, Steele is supposed to lope "Rising Star," a multi-million dollar racehorse and the cereal company's corporate symbol while uttering some lines. When he notices the horse has been drugged and mistreated, he casually rides off the ramp, through the casino, and onto the highway, breaking into full gallop.
John Saxon plays the humiliated adman who must retrieve his prize thoroughbred while Steele intends to free the stallion at a secret horse heaven in remote Nevada. As the manhunt (horsehunt) continues, Allie locates Steele and threatens her management, “well if you don't want this story, I'll just offer it to (the competing station). She endures physical hardships and Redford's cynicism every step of the way, eventually becoming both a liability and an asset.
In the end, Sonny outsmarts them all and his retribution is a not-so-surprising commentary on the values of America's big business and the media.
The review of this Movie prepared by Angry Jim Magin
