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Equus (1977) [Re-Up]

Posted By: Efgrapha

Date: 26 Jul 2016 14:40:12

Equus (1977)
DVD9 | VIDEO_TS | NTSC, 4:3 (720x480) VBR | 02:17:36 | 6.43 Gb
Audio: #1 English AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps; #2 Spanish AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps
Subs: English, French, Spanish
Genre: Drama

Richard Burton plays a psychiatrist who attempts to discover why young Peter Firth has taken to mutilating live horses. In probing Firth's psyche, Burton discovers that the source of the boy's obsession is his mother, Joan Plowright, who has raised Firth with a convoluted set of values. Even as he gets closer to the reason behind Firth's horrendous acts, Burton discovers many previously locked-away secrets within himself. Equus was based on the play by Peter Schaffer who received an Academy Award Nomination for his adapted screenplay.

Synopsis by Hal Erickson, Allmovie.com

Based on Peter Shaffer's successful psychological play, that ran for three years on Broadway. Shaffer adapted his own play to the screen. Under the respectful direction of Sidney Lumet ("Serpico"/"Network"/"The Verdict") it's brought to the screen as a compelling thriller (it was shot on location in Toronto). Its major problem is that its theatrical symbolism cannot easily be transferred to the screen, as its shocking sexual-religious symbolism loses its power when the tragic incidents are realistically acted out.

Magistrate Hester Saloman (Eileen Atkins) wants middle-aged psychiatrist Dr. Martin Dysart (Richard Burton), who administers a progressive English hospital for the mentally ill youth, to treat the 17-year-old Alan Strang (Peter Firth), a stable boy who one night in a rage blinded six horses with a metal spike in the barn where he worked for Mr. Dalton (Harry Andrews). Using the Freudian method the morose Martin investigates the dark secrets of his troubled patient's life: that includes visits with Alan's overbearing religious mother (Joan Plowright) and his cold printer father (Colin Blakely), getting to the bottom of the kid's experiences with horses, the kid's elevating the horse to a god-like status of worship as a personal deity, his relationship with the young stable girl Jill Mason (Jenny Agutter) and, in the shrink's attempt to unravel the mysteries of the troubled kid's mind to make him normal again, the shrink examines his own repressed life and loveless marriage.

It's the playwright's belief that the cure might be worse than the problem, as it's suggested by removing Alan's demons and returning him to "normal" life will in effect emotionally lobotomize the kid by removing his passion for living. Unfortunately, this sounded like horseshit and made me wary of everything about this hyperbolic theatrical production.

It plays out as a suspense yarn, that is built around investigating the crude mysticism of the patient. It goes on for so long, that it might think itself a primer for a course on abnormal psychology.

Firth, who was in the stage version, gives a superb flawless performance as the freaky perp; while Burton articulates well and delivers his patented critic-pleasing monologues to the camera. But for me, he's not that convincing as a probing miracle-worker shrink. Shaffer's tale of myth, religion, sexual inadequacy and madness, though intelligently presented, never provokes us to do any further thinking as it told all in wrapping things up in such a tidy bundle.

The title is derived from the name for the genus of animals to which horses belong.

Review by Dennis Schwartz

IMDB 7,2/10 from 4 857 users
Wiki

Director: Sidney Lumet

Writer: Peter Shaffer

Cast: Richard Burton, Peter Firth, Colin Blakely and other