A Resurgence Of The Horse Movie

Is it hard for you to shake the mental image of all the tragic horse deaths Hollywood has forced upon us, puddles of tears we don’t want to admit? Or Seabiscuit winning that important race? Or grieving over an animal most people have no experience with because they’re only for the wealthy? A few of the most influential and popular horse movies have paved the way for what we know, or think we know, about this niche genre of film. The relationship between horses and people is not something that is comparable to any other animal or relationship. The way the child rides the horse, the two learning in unison, or the wild stallion who only listens to the one cowboy and they have a whirlwind romance before it’s too late and they have to go down different paths. What I’ve noticed is that most horse movies are adapted from novels of the same name. I can’t fully pinpoint why without looking at the western novel. Westerns have been around far longer than most other genres. From as early as the 1850s, authors have been writing about home on the range, and more specifically life with the horse. Titles such as Black Beauty, Seabiscuit, National Velvet, The Black Stallion-- and don’t forget kid-favorite Flicka --were all beloved novels before they were made into movie magic. Why is it that horse movies start as books? Is it because the open field, the adventures, the bonding between human and horse make for a visually boring film? Maybe westerns are just better articulated through words. Or is it the opposite? When someone discovers that bond in a book all they can do is visualize exactly how it will look and feel for a different medium. I’ve extensively researched the Western genre in school, at one point taking an entire film class dedicated to it. I’d like to think I know all about horse movies but what still baffles me is how hundreds of years later this is still the spine of the United States culture. John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, all the problematic storylines, and racist retellings of history is what our grandparents and parents grew up on, and now what we are as well. The beauty of the western genre, and more specifically the horse movie, is that they have adapted with the world around them. No more “Cowboys v. Indians,” but instead we have some really beautiful films about life, love, and friendship. The horse narrative isn’t going anywhere any time soon. In fact, 2018 feels like a resurgence of this special tradition. I like to think of 2018 as: The Year of the Horse Movie. Three films comes to mind immediately that have been all over Film Twitter ™ and the festival circuit, the first of them being my personal favorite, Lean On Pete. The recent A24 release has been widely talked about this past year beginning at the world premiere at the Venice Film Festival. Then quickly after screening at the Toronto International Film festival and BFI London Film Festival, the critically inclined viewer had been hearing about this film for months. Popular writer/director Andrew Haigh (Looking, Weekend, 45 Years) adapted the novel of the same name by Willy Vlautin into this sleeper hit of the new year. The film is a tender three act play about a boy and his need for survival. Luckily, he meets Lean on Pete, a racing horse owned by Del Montgomery, played by Steve Buscemi, and they take off on a journey across middle America searching for a home that for once is filled with love and acceptance. Lean On Pete challenges the narrative of a horse film while still staying true to the integrity of the genre. The second major horse movie of the year is The Rider. A breakout hit of the festival season, The Rider was written and directed by sophomore filmmaker Chloé Zhao, and inspired by a true story about the family Brady Jandreau. Zhao met Jandreau on the set of her first film Songs My Brothers Taught Me, which she filmed in the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. They stayed in touch and then in 2016, “Jandreau was trampled by a horse during a rodeo competition, his skull bashed in by a hoof” (Vanity Fair). Zhao noticed just six weeks after the accident, Jandreau was training a horse. She wanted to explore that story that many battle with, what to do when your dreams are no longer possible. The Rider premiered in Cannes and won the Art Cinema Award, and its touching story has captured the heart of everyone that has seen it. You can tell that this film is so personal, that at times feels like a documentary. Jandreau is clearly still working through the trauma of his accident and his love for the rodeo, making you wonder how close the real man is to the version of himself he’s playing. As a viewer you can only trust Zhao and the Jandreau family on the integrity of the real life events. You can sense the bond that Zhao had with her subjects, and the attention to detail she took when trusting Jandreau with the horses he interacted with. The Rider is a special look at middle America, a new version of the Western. Instead of murdering Native Americans and abusing women, they’ve now become modern day retellings of life, love, passion, and healing from the deeply dangerous life as someone in the rodeo in modern times. The third film, 12 Strong, is still a Western (barely), just not set in middle America. The film is set just after the 9/11 attacks, when a group of 12 soldiers are sent to Afghanistan on...that’s right, horses. While I haven’t seen this film, it has been described as one that “feels like it was made by and for Trump's America” according to Todd McCarthy. A pure propaganda war film, in other words. Manohla Dargis briefly mentions the similarities the film shares with a traditional horse movie, “There are pretty horses, echoes of heroic westerns and a halfhearted rendition”. Even a film like 12 Strong, adapted from the book that was written about real life, clearly shares that special bond between man and horse. 12 Strong might be set in a completely different location than most Western films, but it stays deeply rooted in the lifeblood of the genre. There is no denying that. Seeing these three examples of “Man and his horse” in the theater this year seems like a resurgence of the genre to me. I don’t believe the horse movie or the classic Western will ever truly go out of style. Instead, like many other genres in the industry, streaming services are changing how classics are viewed as well as offering updated twists on the classic we’ve all known and loved. From novels to brand new stories about a boy and his horse, the genre, whether you love it or hate it, will probably always be revisited. Groan all you want, but you’ve seen and will continue to see the horse movie stay alive despite those of us that claim to hate them. Constantly we are seeing filmmakers challenges these archetypes.

I guess I’m a little excited about that, even though I won’t admit it.