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Greetings all...
I just finished watching "Equus" on DVD. A nice film; not a chick flick for sure. Has Richard Burton way back in 1977. Peter Firth and Joan Plowright and couple other English names (maybe nowadays obscure, something like B actors/actresses who read well for their roles).
A psychological study of a headshrinker (Burton) and his patient (Firth). Turns out the patient has issues that culminated in...
The story has its own pace, complete with flashbacks from all concerned. I more or less did not like the patient's parents: too unable to let him go and have friends or just plain get into basic mischief. Religion was bad enough, but replacing Jesus H. Christ with Equus? Hoo boy. Watch the flick on how it happened. What the heck is Equus? Again, the flick has answers.
For those who like to dig for plot holes, I will advise that the plot is tight and extremely localized. That is; doc's office and hospital, the patient's home and the stables/field (all three primary locations) with a porno house, dad's work and doc's friend's house (all secondary locations). So no real plot holes. That is, no holes that I even can see. Any holes may or may not be explained away by therapy and basic screenplay omission. I think therapy is the better explanation as the playwright also converted his play (Equus) into his screenplay. So screenplay omission is probably ruled out.
Sidney Lumet directed this flick. So I think this is a nice movie, maybe a good discussion flick (not in these forums :-)) but at a movie party or something... Pacing was all right. I will give credit to Lumet for doing his best to keep a talking head flick moving along at a steady pace. If the pace was off, the movie will lose a lot; but Lumet kept it on an even keel.
My rating: three hooves out of four hooves. For those who insist on human rating: 7/10.
The DVD has both subtitles and captions. Subtitles are in English and French, maybe Spanish. Never really looked when the captions came on... The transfer is nothing special. No bonus materials (I am always insulted if trailers are considered bonus material). Netflix has it.
The Innocent Bystander
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