Excellent adaptation.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Perfect, affectionate, thrilling. The wild rush of the nude in the woods, a perfect combination of soul and flesh, a passion for inner freedom.Alan, a 17-year-old who had stabbed six horses blind, was sent to a psychiatrist, Martin. During the conversation, Allen's passionate love and hatred for horses also affected Martin. He kept asking Allen and himself. Is the spiritual home of business people barren or rich? Is repression free to roam or tame? Is conflict a challenge or a surrender? Was Alan cruel or confused in stabbing the horse? The plot of the film follows the order in which Alan grew up. Alan, 6, toils his castle on the beach. He thought there was no strong adhesive in the solid building. Like his family. When his parents to entertain the doctor Martin, both husband and wife sitting position is face to face at home, and they treat you the child's position, their way of education, the way they hide their true feelings are always in opposition. My mother is used to suppressing herself, even when she is in a state of emotional breakdown. She preached to Alan the love of god, the love of asceticism in Christianity, the love of nature as indulgence, as sin, as redemption through self-punishment. And when Allen went along with his own nature, he was cursed as a depraved devil who denied him everything without knowing it. She lived in a religion she didn't quite understand. In contrast to his mother's cowardice, Allen's father was autocratic, autocratic, violent, dismissive and evasive. Parents are in a position of authority with their children, and regulations with restrictions are out of protection. They are worried about the influence of the outside world on their children, and they are also afraid of losing their superiority and control. It is pedantic and backward to keep the children in a state of ignorant and ignorant, to enlarge the evil of human nature and to erect the barrier of insulating society. Alan, who had no friends, was attracted by the live horses. Children who yearn to be free from loneliness try to touch the black horse and feel the living animal. The black knight's encouragement released Alan's freedom, freedom and even indulgence, the power to harness and control powerful forces, the ability to feel self-radiating. "Take me away," he was led to cry, and speed, passion, danger, relative desolation, boredom, and restraint were no doubt full of temptation and attraction. And his parents are afraid of his self-knowledge, strong pull away, even at the expense of him. Alan's father attributed the spinning horse to a "dangerous" population. Just as he tore up the image of Christ, he did not allow any authority to stand in for his parents. For Alan, the horse was more than a creature he loved to be close to, with its soft fur, scorching heat, and a chain of iron in his mouth that caused pain. Allen of 12 years old in his mother and the same religious story, under the influence of negative human repressed, bound with the youth germination of sexual consciousness, think that it is a sin and the supervision over their own tortured body before the horse. He dressed himself up as a horse, with a bridle on his head, and with a stick in his hand he beat himself violently, seeking relief from his pain. Through the pain of the body to eliminate the desire, imprison the spirit, in order to save and self-discipline. On the wall of Alan's room Martin, the doctor, saw wild animals and demure figures crisscrossing each other. This seems to imply the chaotic state of young people's pursuit of inner freedom and obedience to authority. The unity of knight and horse is the union of perfect ideal and spiritual freedom. The film emphasizes repeatedly that the two cannot be separated. Alan could not distinguish between the two, and even lost himself in confusion. Allen 17, parents selfish due education, raise no reading disability, in addition to television advertising, in addition to the mother forcedly stories have no history knowledge, knowledge without physics engineering biology, etc. In the first meeting with the doctor, Martin kept singing green arrow gum, martini, doctor's tea and other advertising songs. This is another aspect to show the monotony and lack of Allen's spiritual world. Martin used the words "religion", "education", and "memory" with blood. He dreamed that he become big sacrifice of blade to kill children, questions the meaning of the psychiatrist has done is subconscious, but a little bit of the germination of revolt, made him a bit out of the mainstream consciousness behavior of panic fear woke up. Martin is in communication with Alan from envy he closed lonely self to understand his mental distress, and again and torture in self survival significance, for their real life and work, but can't find the path of liberation bound. Martin's world is constantly asking about the power his career gives him, the power to control other people's emotions and force them to admit and snoop into other people's privacy. He envied Alan, and regarded Alan with detestable venom as the creator of his own pain. This is also the envy most adults have for young people. The undaunted, dynamic adults who have been bound by the rules of society or who have been playing with them and benefiting from them can no longer resist without them. Like Dalton the rancher, when you're excited to walk around the sofa, isn't it like a horse jogging around the yard? The rein is in control of the direction. He was angry and regretted his lack of alertness and attention, and his shaken confidence would forever affect his trust in others in the future. This is social classroom teaching. Alan and Martin clashed in therapy. In response to the doctor's questions, Allen went from silent to nonjudgmental (singing), denying evasion and swapping secrets one-on-one. Of course, as an adult, Martin used trickery. Seeing Allen's desire for understanding and communication, he prescribed a "placebo" -- a non-pharmacological drug prescribed in the name of therapeutic efficacy -- known as a "truth drug". Allen spoke irrepressibly of his past. Especially for the horse to wear bridle, in the night to sneak out. Before he rode, he would feed the sugar cubes, letting the faithful horse and himself carry out the ritual of devouring his SINS. It is worth mentioning that the sugar has "E" or "A" written on each side, which should be the initials of "Equus" (horse Latin) and "Alan" (Allen's name), possibly mimicking the rituals of death and rebirth. Alan railed against the commercial world in which electronics and kitchenware became junk and horses were king. Rebellious confrontation only took place in the dark night when Allen sought spiritual and sexual freedom by riding naked. Ironically, the shackled harness was the first thing to go out. No matter how naked his body is, his spiritual world has been tied down, and he can run away at ease. His ideas are the teachings of Christ stem, the even and beautiful girl and honest, can escape the intangible feelings of guilt, he stabbed the eyes of a blind horse trying to get rid of the oppression of spiritual, but ignores the horse as a divine materialized, his heart to be perfect to the world of crime and punishment is the real prison, collapse of belief. There is a lot of contrast in the film. Allen room two images contrast, Christ's crown of thorns under long hair and bridle mane, Christ's hands cuffed chain and the horse's mouth bit and bridle, AiGu look in the eyes of Christ and charming eyes moist. Alan regarded Christ as divinity, horses as the materialization of divinity, the best living love to be felt. And the horse is the universal god, who is always watching him, always supervising him, the more authoritative being in Allen's mind than his parents. Two slow motion One is Allen before riding screamed against commodity economy system, one is in the stable after the horse's eyes, eye and ruby red horse horsehead dagger appear alternately. The sharp dagger appears in the stop-motion scene at the beginning of the movie. The worship of tall faith may be the reason why the bloody story was cut apart. Alan passed the vegetable patch and the pond at night. One was a gallop under the starlight of a horse. One was walking next to the girl Jill. Squatting in the cabbage patch of a group of children, shaking a moonlit pond, the pale blue walls of a mottled horse house leave the same way as return, but with different companions. The man and horse Alan loved in his heart could not be spiritually united and became what his mother called a knight and a horse. Finally, it led to juvenile delirium. Alan praised the horse and Jill alike -- "beautiful and moving." The reaction of different people to the same action, consciousness, or object in a movie. In therapy Allen's denial can be seen as a condition of self-protection. It's like when he was attacked by his father and he said "no". Martin's denial avoidance is that he refuses to introspect and refuses to see his heart. Alan's father went into a pornographic movie theater and lied to his son. His pale excuse was just an attempt to restore the authority of the family. Alan was conscious of his father's good looks, and for the first time refused his father's face to face opposition to authority. This is the beginning of independent thinking and independent personality. The "iron chain" in the mouth of a horse is called the "horse mouth rank". It is a kind of harness to correct the direction of the horse's march, and it will also hurt the horse to some extent. For Allen to this is the doctrine of heavy moral chains, is the price of adult, copy is like artificially grown trees have been cut, to escape suffering situation will inevitably experience hurt or to harm, innocent and limpid eyes slowly accident and opacity. The pain of the chain is the price of salvation. Martin kept asking "why me?" In his treatment of Allen, he pondered the erosion of the commercial soci

Living in a largely rural area, you meet a lot of people who have a definite infatuation with horses, nominating them to take dog's place as man's best friend. You're also well aware religious fanaticism is a powerful force. Combine that with sexual repression, and you have a potent concept for a film. Such forms the foundation of Equus, released in October 1977, late director Sidney Lumet's followup to the much more popular films Dog Day Afternoon (1975) and Network (1976). Although you'd think it would be of great interest to fans of those films, and fans of Jenny Agutter in the buff, Equus is lamentably forgotten and little sought-out.Yes, there's plenty weird here. Seeing the wild-haired 20-something Peter Firth, playing a 17-year-old, rubbing himself stark naked against a horse, seeing him beat himself with a wooden coat hanger in a makeshift self-flagellation ritual (in his sleep, I think), is bound to raise eyebrows and be off-putting for many. His chanting to Equus veers to the silly. But for a viewer interested in religion, with pagan sympathies, this is a story that can speak to you. How he can go from his rituals to blinding horses is a revelation; Richard Burton's monologues lean to the Senecan in their hysterical emotion, but they contain definite insight nevertheless. Take away a boy's pain, but you also take away who he is. Equus is strange, but for those who can appreciate it, it's much more.

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? Philosophy? Fantasy?Are we watching the younger main character, the troubled youth played by Peter Firth? Or is this a roundabout way to see the older one, a seemingly untroubled psychiatrist played by Richard Burton? I don't think there are answers exactly here, and that's probably a good thing. It's not really a movie that sets out to explain things, but simply to reveal a fascinating situation from the inside, from the inside of their heads, even, as much as possible.But okay. Being in love, somehow, with horses, or with the idea of horses, or both, and acting on that love, is weird, and so kind of fun in a sensationalist way. Unfortunately, the movie makes this whole condition and its meaning grandiose. When it explores the young man's passions, his entrapment at home, or his really sympathetic state of mind (never mind how he twists it cruelly), it's strong. But when it becomes this giant problem for mankind, larger than Shakespeare, a hugely disturbing and hyped up situation fraught with world rattling significance? Well, it's just indulgent and almost laughable. Yes, the way these extremes are filmed and reenacted and imagined is both beautiful, and at one point, shockingly violent. But it isn't enough.Fortunately, Burton is one of those deeply committed, vibrant and convincing actors who can raise up a movie like this. "Equus" is a good movie, sometimes a fantastic movie, inventive and intimate and exploratory. 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. If you love psychology, there is a curious pathology explored here, and that might hold water. If you love Burton, you're in for a treat. He's terrific.

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. Through the prism of child - psychiatrist extraordinaire, played masterfully by Richard Burton, the boy's dark secret as to why he blinded six horses he's employed to look after as stable-boy, comes to light in a harrowing and bloody conclusion.I've only ever seen the play once before and that some twenty years ago in an earnest and truncated version at the Edinburgh Festival and was wary of the movie not slipping its theatrical moorings as it is, on paper, a very static and wordy piece. 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. Some of the main acting too, by the likes of Colin Blakely and Joan Plowright as the boy's parents and occasionally Firth himself is for want of a better word very obviously stagy. Burton does best in a showy part, deserving of his Oscar nomination but handicapped by his character's stereotypical frailties and a tendency to expostulate, particularly with the female teacher from whom's he's holding back his own sexual attraction -it's she who starts off proceedings by bringing Strang to him as the archetypal "impossible case"."Equus" in the end is more Aintree "Grand National" steeplechase than Epsom Derby sprint, with perhaps too many fences over the course, but if you're still standing at the end, there are some rewards to be savoured, particular in some of Lumet's direction and most of Burton's acting.