THE HORSE WHISPERER

'''The Horse Whisperer''' (1998) is a movie directed by and starring Robert Redford, based on the 1995 novel by Nicholas Evans. Redford plays the title role, a talented trainer with a remarkable gift for understanding horses, who is hired to help an injured teenager (played by Scarlett Johansson) and her horse back to health following a tragic accident.

Contents

Plot

Background

Horse Training Methods

Reception

External links

Plot

Teenager Grace MacLean (Johansson) and her best friend Judith (Kate Bosworth) sneak out of the house early one winter's morning to ride their horses. As they are riding up an icy slope, one of the horses falls, dragging both horses and girls onto a road where a truck appears, resulting in a horrific collision. Judith and her horse (Gulliver) are killed, while Grace and her horse (Pilgrim) are both severely injured.
Grace eventually recovers physically, though she is left permanently disabled by a partial leg amputation and remains listless and psychologically scarred. However, her horse is traumatized and uncontrollable to the extent where it is strongly suggested he should be humanely put down. In an attempt to heal both her daughter and the horse, Grace's mother Annie (Kristin Scott Thomas) contacts Tom Booker (Redford), a "Horse Whisperer", who reluctantly agrees to help, on the condition that the despondent Grace takes part in the process. Matters are complicated more when Annie begins to fall in love with Booker, even though she is married to Grace's father (played by Sam Neill).
Tom Booker: Sometimes what seems like surrender isn't surrender at all. It's about what's going on in our hearts. About seeing clearly the way life is and accepting it and being true to it, whatever the pain, because the pain of not being true to it is far, far greater.

Background

Although he had already directed several films, this was the first time Robert Redford had directed a film that he was also starring in.
The main character, according to writer Nicholas Evans' website faq, is modeled after horse trainers Tom Dorrance, Ray Hunt and Buck Brannaman, although the training more closely resembles the methods of Frank Bell . Buck Brannaman also doubled for Robert Redford in the film and served as a consultant.
The therapy administered to the traumatized horse is faithful to John Solomon Rarey's description of his own methods, although it differs in small details. On his website, Nicholas Evans posted, "I spent many weeks traveling across the West and met three amazing horsemen: Tom Dorrance, Ray Hunt and Buck Brannaman." Tom Dorrance and Ray Hunt would have already been elderly at that time, whereas Brannaman was still a relatively young man.

Horse Training Methods

The training methods seem to be described as "natural" because of the title, but many followers of Natural Horsemanship are against the training methods shown in this movie because of the coercive nature. The title "The Horse Whisperer" makes it sound like the man listens to horses and how they behave, but "Tom Booker" acts predatory in many scenes.

Reception

The film received mixed reviews upon its release. Variety hailed it as "an exquisitively crafted, morally and thematically mature picture" while Newsweek regarded it as "punishingly dull", a criticism not helped by the film's considerable length. Regardless of this, the film was a box office hit and grossed $187 million worldwide ($75m of which was the US total).
The song "A Soft Place To Fall" by Alison Moorer was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song, though it lost out to "When You Believe" from ''The Prince of Egypt''.

External links

★

★ Mixed Messages from the Movie, The Horse Whisperer - John Lyons critiques the horse training methods it depicts

★ Buck Brannaman site

★ Springhill Pavillion - The dance scene in The Horse Whisperer was all filmed in and around the Pavilion

★ Photos of the first edition of The Horse Whisperer