Winner of the Audience Award (Documentary) at Sundance 2011, about American Buck Braannaman – from his abusive childhood to his life as a successful horse-whisperer.
“Brannaman tours the world giving clinics on ‘starting’ colts, using a method of firm but sensitive nonverbal instruction that one rancher admiringly calls ‘voodoo.’ Brannaman’s entire philosophy of how horses mirror the psychology and insecurities of their owners… stems from the merciless brutality that he and his brother experienced in childhood, at the hands of an alcoholic father, an experience that informs his entire ‘feel’ for managing equine fear. It must be admitted: this guy’s instinctively empathic way with animals is uncanny. Filmmaker Cindy Meehl tracks Buck (a former child-celebrity trick roper who made numerous TV appearances after he went pro at age six) from Montana to the Carolinas as he calmly tames one unmountable wild thing after another with nothing more than a lead rope and a couple of flags.” (NZ International Film Festival 2011)
You don’t have to be a horse person to enjoy this gentle documentary but it would probably help. Buck Brannaman’s life story seems ready made for the movies, so it’s little surprise he was partial inspiration for Robert Redford’s character in The Horse Whisperer. Buck doesn’t actually whisper at the horses he tames in the workshops he hosts all over America; it’s more of an unspoken offering of understanding. But it gets results.
The film uses Buck’s story to make universally relevant points about the power of empathy and compassion. When we learn of Buck’s abusive upbringing, TV footage of his youthful self doing rope tricks takes on tragic proportions.
Whilst this remains reasonably captivating for its first hour, it kinda runs out of steam after that, suggesting there wasn’t quite enough to justify a full-length movie. Watching Buck run his workshops is entertaining, only up to a point, but his story remains a heartfelt exploration of a gentle soul and a relevant reminder to be nice to the animals.
By Dominic Corry, Flicks.co.nz
A very interesting film. When I went the cinema was filled with 'Pony Club' types. But this is not a film for the fainthearted. The brutal descriptions of the beatings Buck took at the hands of his father actually gave me nightmares. Probably not necessary to see this on the big screen but if you like documentaries this one stands up well.
Perhaps Brannaman’s art is too subtle and instinctive to be captured on camera, but it’s a shame Meehl doesn’t do a better job of capturing exactly what makes him, by all accounts, a miraculously successful trainer.
What I was left with was the goodness of Buck Brannaman as a man.
Buck is shaped with the same economy, restraint, and unfussiness as the man, to unexpectedly inspiring effect.
Doc about the real-life "Horse Whisperer" holds fascination both inside and out of the corral.
Buck is an exceptional movie.
We've been told the NZ release date for this flick is Thursday, 19th Jan 2012.
Release date: January 19th 2012.
We haven't received times for this movie in this location yet. However these are updated as cinemas announce them, so check back soon. Hopefully the lovely cinemas in your location will choose to play it shortly. ~Ed.
