Colin Firth Movie:

Editorial Review:
A film adaptation of the famous play by Peter Shaffer, Equus stars Richard Burton (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, 1984) as Martin Dysart, a psychiatrist who takes on an unusual case: a young stable boy (Peter Firth, The Hunt for Red October) who, in a frenzy, has blinded six horses. Their sessions reveal that the boy has a quasi-religious fetish for horses and he rides them in the dead of night, experiencing an ecstasy unlike anything Dysart has ever known. Dysart begins to question: Is the pursuit of normalcy worth the loss of individual passions? Equus features a lot of hokum--its therapy scenes are absurd crescendos of revelation and insights. But its central question has substance, the direction is energetic, and the performances are powerful; Burton, handsome and haggard, brings a complex self-loathing to his role. Also featuring Jenny Agutter (Logan's Run) and Joan Plowright (Enchanted April). --Bret Fetzer

Equus [Region 2] Reviews:
A good stiff jolt
2009-11-01 - I borrowed this movie from a library, and apart from the description on the case, I knew nothing about it.

Well, the scenes of pagan bestiality were disturbing enough. The scene where Strang blinded those horses, well, I couldn't look at it. I intensely dislike seeing animals harmed for any reason other than food or self-defense. For much of the movie, I sat there invoking curses upon what I interpreted as a betrayal of my expectations.

But then, Dr. Dysart (brilliantly portrayed by Richard Burton) shared his revelation about his patient. He understood that, as lost and in pain as the boy Strang was, as deviant as his behavior was, as horrible and unspeakable as his crime was, there was, under it, a finger pointing at the dull mediocrity that the rest of us live in. Most people sleepwalk through their lives. No passion, no joy, no pain, no purpose. These agonies and ecstasies are essential to the fullness of a human life. Yet, Strang was a product of a society that could not provide even a passable facimilie of these human feelings. Thus, the law of conservation of energy being equally applicable to psychology, that energy had to go somewhere. For Strang, he fabricated a false idol to which he attached sexual imagery - yet another energy he was ill equipped to channel. This disingenuous idolatry was the only passion in his life, and he took it as far as it could go.

Dysart was then forced to face his own ugly truth. That of an utterly empty life. Strang's mocking looks told him, when Dysart could finally understand, that while Dysart was comfortably trapped in a mediocre world wherein he would look at drawings of centaurs in dusty, clinically devised books, Strang was running wild in the night trying to become one.

It was when I realized this that I understood that the unforgivable attacks on the innocent horses was, on the one hand, incidental. On the other hand, it was the inevitable result of the boy's headlong dive into his passion. His incapacity to resolve the paradox he was forced into by circumstance combined with temperament and inclination. He was a moth that fell in love with the flame, and was consumed by it.

This is the difference between the millions of boxing fans who sit in front of the TV drinking beer and watching the title fight, and those few who go out into the ring and get beaten to a pulp in a real fight. This is the difference between those who attend the occasional religious service on holidays or whenever, and those who immerse themselves in their spiritual practice irregardless of the cost. They have a real love, a real passion, and no matter what, they are living a real life; while most simply exist as automatons without minds, without hearts, without spirit.

This, I believe, is what "Equus" is saying.

Horsecr@p
2009-10-08 - Psychobabble, bestiality, animal cruelty, and stage play adaptions.. all the ingredients for a fun family movie.

In a nutshell (pun intended):

A quest for freedom, ecstacy, and truth represented by a disturbed stableboy who gets off touching and riding horses in the nude, ai, worshipping them, until they come in the way of his being able to perform sexually with members of his own species, whereon he flips and gouges their eyes out. The good doctor questions the ethics of curing one with such "true passion".

There is some interesting study of sexuality in relationship to 'religion', although other than acknowleging that it can cause repression, odd behaviour (the boy) and hypocracy (the father), I'm not sure any new ground was broken or that this movie said anything that made it worth sitting through all the other BS (see paragraph above). A long movie to sit through.

movie equus review
2008-10-24 - A well-directed arthouse style movie. It is disturbing but necessarily so...brilliant performance by Richard Burton!

A WORK OF ART
2008-06-19 - EQUUS is one of those plays you never forget after you see it. Although the theatrical version is matchless, this film adaptation succeeds in bringing into the widescreen the painful drama of these two characters who represent - in many aspects - the torments of modern society. Brilliantly interpreted by Burton & Firth, this is a theatrical adaptation not to be missed. Due to the brutal explicity of some sequences, it sounds understandable that a good number of viewers may feel shocked and tend to underrate the whole piece. I think this play - although written in 1973 - has a lot to say about us, about modern society, sexuality, religion and existential values. Give it a try and reflect upon it once you see it.

Disturbing and terrifying
2008-04-05 - This movie lacks all imagination that could have been put into the production. There is just a lot of male nudity and gore, and eerie sexual tension between the boy and his horse.