Equus (film)
| Equus | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Sidney Lumet |
| Produced by |
Elliott Kastner Lester Persky Denis Holt |
| Screenplay by | Peter Shaffer |
| Based on |
Equus by Peter Shaffer |
| Starring |
Richard Burton Peter Firth Jenny Agutter Joan Plowright Colin Blakely |
| Music by | Richard Rodney Bennett |
| Cinematography | Oswald Morris |
| Edited by | John Victor-Smith |
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Production
company |
Winkast Film Productions
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| Distributed by | United Artists |
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Release date
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Running time
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137 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom United States |
| Language | English |
Equus is a 1977 British-U.S. drama film directed by Sidney Lumet and written by Peter Shaffer, based on his play of the same name. The film stars Richard Burton, Peter Firth, Colin Blakely, Joan Plowright, Eileen Atkins, and Jenny Agutter. The story concerns a psychiatrist treating a teenager who has blinded horses in a stable, attempting to find the root of his horse worship.
Lumet's translation of the acclaimed play to a cinematic version incorporated some realism, in the use of real horses as opposed to human actors, and a graphic portrayal of the blinding. Despite some criticism of this approach, the film received positive reviews, with awards for Burton, Firth and Agutter.
A magistrate asks psychiatrist Martin Dysart, who works in a "provincial" hospital in Hampshire, England, to treat a 17-year-old stable boy named Alan Strang, who blinded six horses with a scythe. With Alan only singing TV commercial jingles, Martin meets with the boy's parents, the non-religious Frank Strang and Christian fundamentalist mother Dora. Dora has taught her son the basics of sex and that God sees all. Frank also discloses to Martin that he witnessed Alan, late at night in his room, chanting a series of names in Biblical genealogy-fashion, culminating in a god named Equus.
Alan shares his earliest memory of a horse, when he was six and a man approached him with a horse named Trojan. Alan imagined the horse spoke to him, and said his true name was Equus, and this was the name of all horses. The man allowed Alan to ride Trojan, which the boy found thrilling, but his parents reacted negatively and injured him taking him off the horse. Martin also meets the stable manager, who reveals Alan secured his job through another employee, Jill. Devastated at the horses' injuries she indirectly caused, Jill has taken medical leave.
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