Equus

Plot synopsis:
Martin Dysart (Richard Burton) is a psychiatrist in a psychiatric hospital. He begins with a monologue in which he outlines the case of 17-year-old Alan Strang. He also divulges his feeling that his occupation is not all that he wishes it to be and his feelings of dissatisfaction and disappointment about his barren life. Dysart finds that there is a never-ending supply of troubled young people for him to "adjust" back into "normal" living; but he doubts the value of treating these youths, since they will simply return to a dull, normal life that lacks any commitment and "worship" (a recurring theme). He comments that Alan Strang's crime was extreme but adds that just such extremity is needed to break free from the chains of existence. A court magistrate, Hesther Saloman, visits Dysart, believing that he has the skills to help Alan come to terms with his violent acts involving six horses.At the hospital, Dysart has a great deal of difficulty making any kind of headway with Alan (Peter Firth), who at first responds to questioning by singing TV advertising jingles. Slowly, however, Dysart makes contact with Alan by playing a game where each of them asks a question, which must be answered honestly. He learns that, from an early age, Alan has been receiving conflicting viewpoints on religion from his parents. Alan's mother, Dora Strang (Joan Plowright), is a devout Christian who has read to him daily from the Bible. This practice has antagonized Alan's atheist father, Frank Strang (Colin Blakely), who, concerned that Alan has taken far too much interest in the more violent aspects of the Bible, destroyed a violent picture of the Crucifixion that Alan had hung at the foot of his bed. Alan replaced the picture with one of a horse, with large, staring eyes.During his youth, Alan had established his attraction to horses by way of his mother's biblical tales, a horse story that she had read to him, western movies, and his grandfather's interest in horses and riding.Dysart reveals a dream he has had, in a Grecian/Homeric setting, in which he is a public official presiding over a mass ritual sacrifice. Dysart slices open the viscera of hundreds of children, and pulls out their entrails. He becomes disgusted with what he is doing, but desiring to "look professional" to the other officials, does not stop.Alan's sexual training began with his mother who told him he could find true love and contentment by way of religious devotion and marriage. During this time Alan also begins to show a sexual attraction to horses, desiring to pet their thick coats, feel their muscular bodies and smell their sweat. Alan reveals to Dysart that he had first encountered a horse at age six, on the beach. A rider (John Wyman) approached him, and took him up on the horse. Alan was visibly excited, but his parents found him and his father pulled him violently off the horse. The horse rider scoffed at the father and rode off.In another key scene, Dysart hypnotizes Alan, and during the hypnosis, Dysart reveals elements of his terrifying dream of the ritual murder of children. Dysart begins to jog Alan's memory by filling in blanks, and asking questions. Alan reveals that he wants to help the horses by removing the bit, which enslaves them.After turning 17, Alan took a job working in a shop selling electrical goods, where he met Jill Mason (Jenny Agutter), an outgoing and free-spirited young woman in her mid-20s. She visits the shop wanting to purchase blades for horse-clippers. Alan is instantly interested when he discovers that Jill has such close contact with horses after she tells him that she works for a local stable owner. Jill suggests that Alan work for the owner of the stables, Harry Dalton (Harry Andrews), and Alan agrees.Dysart meets with Dalton who tells him that he first held Alan to be a model worker, since he kept the stables immaculately clean and groomed the horses, including one named "Nugget." Through Dysart's questioning, it becomes clear that Alan is erotically fixated on Nugget (or 'Equus') and secretly takes him for midnight rides, bareback and naked. Alan also envisions himself as a king, on the godhead Equus, both destroying their enemies.In the climax, Dysart gives Alan a placebo "truth pill" and revealing a tryst with Jill, begins to re-enact the event. Jill, who had taken an interest in Alan, had asked him to take her to a porno theater after he confided in her that he never had sex before and Jill apparently decided to show him "how it's done". While there, they both ran into Frank. Alan was traumatized, particularly when he realized that his father was lying when he tried to justify his presence in the theater. However, this occurrence allows Alan to realize that sex is a natural thing for all men... even his father. Alan walks Jill home after they leave. She convinces Alan to come to the stables with her.Once there, Jill seduces Alan and the two start having wild sex. However, Alan breaks this off when he hears the horses making noises in the stables beneath. Jill tries to ask Alan what the problem is, but he shouts at her to leave. After Jill puts back on her clothes and walks out of the stables, the stark nude Alan begs the horses for forgiveness for having pre-marital sex, as he sees the horses as God-like figures. "Mine!...You're mine!...I am yours and you are mine!" cries Equus through Dysart's voice, but then he becomes threatening: "The Lord thy God is a jealous God," Equus/Dysart seethes, "He sees you, he sees you forever and ever, Alan. He sees you!...He sees you!" Alan screams, "God sees!" and then he says "No more. No more, Equus!" Alan then blinds the six horses in the stable with a steel spike, whose eyes have "seen" his very soul. Dalton is the one who runs in and subdues Alan before calling the police. After finishing his story to the shaken Dysart, Alan is taken away in a straightjacket to a isolation cell of the hospital.The final scene has another monologue by Dysart questioning the fundamentals of his practice and whether or not what he does will actually help Alan, as the effect of his treatment will remove Alan's humanity which includes his intense sexual and religious commitment, and his worship of the horses as well.

Tags: insanity, flashback

Review:
Absolutely gripping!I remember when I saw this on stage, reading in the program, that the writer Peter Schafer was traveling through the English countryside when he happened to come across a local news story of a young man who had blinded 6 horses at a nearby stable.
Few films have dared be this bold, yet simple in it's natural telling of a highly unusual act of violence by a young man emotionally out of control and all the darkness that lie beneath.Also interesting is a story such as this where the therapy and healing taking place seems to be shared equally by patient and doctor.
Richard Burton gives one of his last great performances as Dysart, showing us the literally crumbling facade of the doctor's spirit, while at the same time giving us a complete character (contrast his cynicism throughout with the moments of tenderness, such as those shown to Alan's mother and to Alan himself after the final session).
The rest of the cast -- notably Joan Plowright, Colin Blakely and Jenny Agutter -- do wonders with the limited dialogue they have to work with.Put simply, Equus is an astonishing film to watch, provided that you're ready to watch it as a film, rather than as a filmed stage play.
Maybe you don't want to figure it out.What helped bring this film to such a level was the: The acting by Richard Burton and Peter Firth.
Peter Firth and Richard Burton combined to give one of the most haunting and disturbing duo performances ever getting deep inside the mind of and thinking of the human being.
Alan Strang (Peter Firth) has been interned under the guidance of Martin Dysart (Richard Burton) to work through the issues surrounding his actions.
Richard Burton gave his finest performance in this adaptation of the Peter Shaffer play about a psychiatrist (Burton) who must unravel a mystery surrounding the blinding of a number horses from a young boy,played to perfection by Peter Firth.
Although this is the story of Peter Firth's character and his struggle with his love and connection with horses, it is Burton's power that makes this movie deep.
Normal is the indispensable murderous god of health and I am his priest." Richard Burton's last truly great performance came in Sidney Lumet's screen adaption of Paul Shaffer's play; reprising the celebrated role that he himself had already wowed critics with on stage.
When a disturbed young man, Alan Strang (Peter Firth), blinds six horses with a metal spike he is referred by the magistrates to the care of psychiatrist Dr. Martin Dysart (Burton).
The script is extremely intelligent whilst there are a handful of small but eye-catching supporting roles that help Dysart slot the pieces of his puzzle together; most notably from Colin Blakely and Joan Plowright as Strangs parents and Jenny Agutter as the young girl who introduces Alan to the stables where his madness finally spirals into violence.
Firth turns in a wonderfully sensitive performance as the shy, deeply damaged youth who is overwhelmed by his adolescence, repressed yearnings and befuddled sexuality whilst Burton is absolutely terrific as Dysart; his disillusionment with his own sterile existence and unhappy marriage diffusing slowly through his (sexually muted) conversations with his friend (Eileen Atkins) and spilling out in a string of acidic monologues that both narrate events and serve as vents to the emotional conflicts of a man whose career is devoted to unravelling them.
On a cold night on an English farm, Alan Strang (Peter Firth) a naked youth strokes, plays, rides and makes passionate love to his beloved companion, a beautiful horse.
The film handles themes that wont go down well with many audiences; there are clear bestiality scenes (made more shocking by the human participant's young age) and some very shocking violence directed towards animals; yet in spite of this, the film still managed to get nominated for a few Oscars, and that is testament to the great work put into it by the two central actors who do a brilliant job of bringing Peter Shaffer's story to life.
The film really needs two great actors to carry this off and it gets them in the form of Richard Burton and Peter Firth.
At 138 minutes, Equus seems like it might turn out to be a little bit too long, but it actually makes very good use of it's time, which flies by and the film doesn't become boring at all despite it's slow pace.
Firth also is strong as a confused young man, and he has quite a bit to do with his role: he plays his character in a mentally disturbed state, under hypnosis, and even credibly as himself at age six in one scene.
I had heard of the Peter Schaffer play before watching the film adaptation by Sidney Lumet, but I didn't know that much about what goes on in the actual story (all I knew, honestly, was that Daniel Radcliffe photo next to the horse in the 17 year old buff, and finding it a little strange but something for the ladies at any rate).
Richard Burton was almost thought to be too much of a risk (too drunk and an "over-actor" to hire), but he's just right for the part of Dr. Dysart: he's as sharp and even compassionate a 'shrink' one would want, especially if one is young, but there's conflict in the routine of doing this and that, going along helping others but getting no real passion for anything in life in return, including no children and an unresponsive wife.
Burton taps into this dissatisfaction like it's Shakespearean in the grandiose moments, breaking the forth wall talking right to the audience from his desk, but at the same time he's also great at subtle scenes, quiet bits where he has to convey so much of his own sadness in his eyes.Then there's Peter Firth.
But really the focal point here is Strang, played by Firth like some passive-aggressive bloke with a deep, dark history of an oppressive mother (an uncommonly good Joan Plowright), weak-willed father (also very good Colin Blakey), and of course with those horses, whom we see in his described flashbacks going all nude with one horse out at night in an ecstasy that goes between the sexual and some kind of crazed religious rite of passage.
Aside from the choice of material being unusual- one might think Ken Russell would take this on long before someone of Lumet, who made classics like Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon and Network in the same decade- he goes for the abstract in camera movements, in a subjective kind of lighting like in the climactic stable scene, and it's exhilarating to see him go past the expectations of a stage play (while those who've seen it will say otherwise, for those seeing the film first one wonders how the hell this was pulled off on a stage).It's a staggering feat from any director, yet from Lumet it's a wonderfully deranged work that plumbs the human condition for all its worth in the prism of a unique situation developing with very real, raw characterizations.
Burton is also on fine form, and Lumet does a wonderful job of keeping him on the screen despite the theatricality of the character and his dialogue, not to mention that of Burton as an actor.This is not a film I would recommend to many people, as it is not easy viewing and it demands a good deal of emotional intelligence and the patience to use it.
After all, this is a very daring film and it demands a reaction from its audience since it deals mainly, I would say, with passion.Both Peter Firth and Richard Burton give a lesson on acting that every 20 million hollywood superstar should pay atention too.
Playwright Peter Shaffer adapted his stage material into this screenplay about a brow-beaten, sexually repressed young British man who develops an odd and unhealthy equine obsession--not with riding or fornicating with horses, but seeing himself as one, and that duality of horse and human relations has caused the boy to become shut-off from normal feelings.
The classy look of the picture (the unobtrusive design and lack of bright color) lends the story an air of solemn importance, and there are bracing sequences set inside the horse stable where Peter Firth is employed, but Burton keeps hammering away at this case study without enlightening us.
It is based on a play by Peter Shaffer, who would go on to write great movies like "Amadeus." Not being either a snob or a psychiatrist, however, I was bored stiff long before the movie had reached its 2 hours and 15 minutes of running time.Critics suggested that the problem with the movie was that it worked on stage but not on screen.
(Yes, film snobs, I know that such monologues are popularly known as "soliloquies.") But there's a clash between those scenes, delivered in particularly over-the-top style by Burton, and the rest of the film's brutal realism, which reaches its peak when a teenager mutilates a bunch of horses in the single most disturbing scene I viewed during the course, and that's saying something considering that we also watched "A Clockwork Orange" and "American Psycho."The real problem with the movie is that it has no story.
But Equus is sabotaged by the nonsense dialog coming out sporadically from both Firth (playing the boy accused of blinding six horses) and Burton himself (who even at one point talks to the camera, announcing '...however, I'm not making any sense').While the much discussed nudity can be a bit uncomfortable, it is not gratuitous at least.
Equus (1977)A young man turns a troubled childhood into a bizarre affliction confusing love and worship and horses and best friends in a strange, surreal, beautiful, confounding mashup.Is this movie about psychology?
Firth (largely a television actor) is quite a sympathetic character and he plays his role with abandonment, to his credit.If you love horses, you might think this movie is up your alley, but beware on that score, because of the violence.
No doubt, horse lovers, should avoid this film, due to the quite graphic blinding horses scene, where our mentally disturbed teen, Alan Strang (a brilliant Peter Firth) goes berserk one night, following a sexual encounter mishap with another stable hand (Agutter- An American Werewolf In London) where both bare all.
Of course, the burning question, we want to know, is what drove this young boy with such a love of horses to commit such a horrid act, where it can be a combination of things here, where after it's ending, we're left to form our own opinions, which is kind of a bugger.
Normally a film feeling like a play adaptation is a negative thing, but I think it worked a lot here with the style of the people involved.
Secondly, the actors all make it work from Shaffer's adaptation, with Richard Burton being very large and commanding and Peter Firth played his character on stage before doing the film.
The story itself is quite intriguing, as psychiatrist Martin Dysart (Burton) engages in sessions with young Alan Strang (Firth) to try and uncover the rationale for why Strang blinded six horses with a metal spike.The film does focus on Dysart on a larger scale, with his relationships and personal demons, but it's at it's strongest when dealing with the sessions between him and Strang.
Richard Burton gives one of *the* finest acting performances ever as the agonizingly self-doubting psychiatrist assigned to a young man who has brutally maimed a half-dozen horses.
Richard Burton plays a psychiatrist who is assigned the task of probing into the mind of a young man who mutilated (by blinding) a stable of horses.
And be warned---if you don't like seeing harm come to animals in movies, the scene where Peter Firth's character blinds the horses leaves nothing to the imagination.Grade: B-.
Stable boy Alan Strang (Peter Firth) has blinded a number of horses and no one can figure out why.
Psychiatrist Martin Dysart (Richard Burton) tries to find out why.I've never seen the stage play so I can't compare it to that but, on its own, this is a pretty dull movie.
True story: When I searched IMDb for this movie, I accidentally typed the word "pretentious" in instead of "Equus." The opinions and beliefs the author expresses through Richard Burton's character might have been believable if they came from the confused teenager, but coming from a man of his years, experience, and education, they're ludicrous.
While Burton's disillusionment seems genuine enough,part of his crisis involves the "fact" by curing the young man and making him normal he will also be homogenising him and taking away the esctacy he reaches with his deluded nocturnal jaunts with his four legged friends/gods/lovers...while intellectually interesting enough, for this viewer it just didn't ring true - the boy's mental problems seem too weird and unhealthy to even think twice about getting rid of them...The movie is quite graphic - it contains nudity male and  female but isn't in any sense prurient and I dont believe its gratuitious.
More disturbing is the blinding of the horses which is as difficult scene to watch as I can remember in the last year or so anyway...worth seeking out for the ideas and for being one of the sadly too few films that Richard Burton showed some of vast acting talent..
A young man played by Peter Firth who worked in a stable went out blinded six horses with a spike for no apparent reason.
Sidney Lumet's film-dramatisation of Peter Shaffer's shocking stage-play "Equus", is an undeniably difficult, often overbearing but occasionally enlightening examination of the suppressed sexuality of a teenage boy brought up in a closeted household by two of the most repressed parents you could meet this side of Mary Whitehouse.
For the first half or more however, director Lumet accomplishes this, centred round the well-dramatised recollection of the boy Alan Strang's (Peter Firth) first encounter with a horse on the beach interpolated with natural changes of location at the school, Strang's parents' house and the stables where he finds work and makes the ill-fated acquaintance of fellow-worker Jenny Agutter, who is again required to remove her clothing at a key part of the narrative (like in "Walkabout").The film is slow-moving at times and over-burdened with a little too much angst from both teacher and pupil.
Firth's raising up of the horse-god "Equus" from the dark recesses of his battered consciousness and Burton's pieces-to-camera play up the artificiality of the piece too much and I also think the relationship of Strang's screwed-up parents too close to caricature - it's impossible to ever imagine them as a "normal" loving couple.
I have to say too that I found the sexual imagery of the boy with the stallions a little over-the-top and unsettling too...and yet there are effective sequences too, evincing real drama and power, particularly in some of the doctor-patient exchanges between Burton and Firth, while the infamous nude scene between the young couple which immediately prefigures Strang's bloody breakdown and the gory conclusion itself, is handled surely and sensitively.As an examination of the coming of age of an emotionally crippled young man, beset by demons arising from his over-weaned childhood, "Equus" is hit and miss.
It's a truly remarkable and thought-provoking film.Alan Strang (Peter Firth), a simple stable boy has gone berserk with a sickle blinding the eyes of six beautiful horses.
There is a kind of mystical union between him and the horse as he reaches orgasm, animal and man becoming one in sweet exultation.Delicately portrayed and beautifully acted, such scenes are rare in the cinema.An interesting twist to the story occurs when the psychiatrist admits his jealousy of the boy's tremendous passion, something that has always been missing from his own married life.I have only scratched the surface of this film.
Richard Burton plays a jaded psychiatrist hired to fine out why a teenager (Peter Firth) blinded six horses.
Even knowing the outcome of his mental instability, the scene where he inflicts it is still a shock.Burton and Firth turn in fine performances, as do Colin Blakely as the strict father, Joan Plowright as the devoutly religious mother, Harry Andrews as the stable owner, and Jenny Agutter as one of the other employees.
In Peter Shaffer's film 'Equus', the conflict between objectivity and subjectivity is explored, through the relationship between Alan Strang(Firth) and the esteemed child Psychiatrist Dr Martin Dysart(Burton).
The doctor finds out more and more about the boy's strange obsession with horses, which finally makes him doubt about his own perception of reality and attitude towards life.The film sucks you in right from the beginning, with Richard Burton's fourth wall breaking monologue setting the tone for what is to come.
The rest of the film is a great psychological study of the characters, especially the boy, Alan Strang (brilliantly played by Peter Firth), but also the doctor (one of the last great roles from Richard Burton).
What really impresses me here, is how the film delves into the depths of the human mind and represents many of its complexities and contradictions.Speaking of representation, it is also important to know that Equus is the adaptation of a play of the same name, written by Peter Shaffer.
Looking and talking like a wide eyed street corner religious lunatic Dysart tells the audience about a recent case of his, stable-boy Alan Strang( Peter Firth), and how it had blown his mind completely out of kilter.17 year-old Alan had somehow lost his mind and in the dead of night attacked and blinded six horses under his care including the horse Nugget whom he had worshiped as if he were a God!
In sweepingly philosophical language, Dysart relates his experiences with Alan Strang (Peter Firth), a 17-year-old boy arrested for blinding six horses with a metal spike at the riding stable where he was employed.
Based on Peter Shaffer's play, "Equus" revolves around a crime in which a young boy stabs six horses, graphically puncturing their eyes with a metal spike.