Horse Tale

Not long ago, I watched the movie Equus, adapted in the 1970s by Peter Shaffer from his own stage play. I've known that play for some time, first reading it in high school and having since seen a few productions of it. It has a bit more notoriety these days for the current revival on Broadway featuring Daniel Radcliffe (of Harry Potter fame).

The truth is, it was somehow only recently that I even learned a movie version of it had ever been made. And not really a small, overlooked one either -- directed by the famous Sidney Lumet, it earned Oscar nominations for Shaffer's writing, and for stars Peter Firth (as a troubled teenager who inexplicably blinded six horses with a pick at the stable where he worked) and Richard Burton (as the psychiatrist trying to learn why and heal the boy). Plus, those two actors won Golden Globes that year for their performances.

And in my opinion, it is a very good adaptation of the play. Interestingly, it preserves a lot more of the "theatricality" of the piece than most stage-to-film adaptations do. Long sequences are presented without cuts in the film. There are monologues by the psychiatrist, speaking directly into the camera, and often in a shadowy background of nothingness. In a flashback to the boy at age six, the same actor portrays the "young child."

The film does seem to play more languidly than the play has when I've seen it, but it is punctuated with some very strong scenes. The sequence in which we observe the boy secretly riding a horse -- naked -- at night as part of a religious ritual is extremely unsettling. It feels very much like a violation that we're watching it, and even watching it alone at home, I couldn't help but feel a bit uncomfortable. Nearly as powerful is the blinding of the horses itself, which somehow still manages to pack a dramatic punch despite obviously fake 1970s-era horse head dummies and odd, Psycho-esque choices of camera angles.

But the film does stumble a bit in the same place as the play, in my opinion. Despite the story of the boy, Equus is really about the psychiatrist, about his doubts in his profession and whether or not what he does is the "right thing." I've yet to see a version of the piece in which I truly believe that character's moral dilemma. He questions whether it's right to excise a part of the psyche that is capable of true ecstasy when that part can be responsible for reprehensible acts. That's a tough sell, in my book. Open to debate, perhaps, but I've never quite seen the play credibly present that other side of the argument, and in my opinion, the movie doesn't get there either. (It's a similar question to the one posed by A Clockwork Orange -- and I never quite bought it there either, in book or movie form.)

Nevertheless, this film still very good overall, if you're in the mood for something challenging to watch. It's not nearly as brilliant as the film version of Amadeus, another (far better) Peter Shaffer play, but I still rate it a solid B.