EQUUS 

“At least I galloped - when did you?”

Peter Shaffer was traveling through the English countryside when he happened to come across a local news story of a young man who had blinded 6 horses. Shaffer wondered about what could have triggered such a violent act, and based on these premises, he wrote the play “Equus”

Equus is one possible explanation for this strange event, brilliantly directed by Sidney Lumet, based on Shaffer’s screenplay and with Shaffer himself on-set during filming.

 The story:

When 17 year old Alan Strang (played by Peter Firth), blinds six horses with a metal spike, he is referred by the magistrates to the care of psychiatrist Dr. Martin Dysart (played by Richard Burton). Dysart first tries to engage Alan in conversation by asking basic questions, but Alan is detached, uncooperative and defiant. He does not answer any questions but resorts instead to singing meaningless television jingles. 

In order to unlock the truth about what led Alan to blind six horses, Dysart opts for a series of sessions that include suggestion and hypnosis. 
In the meantime Dysart digs deeper into Alan’s life, visiting Alan’s parents, as well as Alan’s employer at the stable where Alan worked. However, as we slowly unearth pieces of the puzzle, a veil of opacity and confusion sets in. Contradicting stories and hidden secrets start to emerge.

As Dysart methodically unveils layer after layer in his search for the truth, he comes face to face with his particular predicament and starts questioning himself and his own moral authority. Slowly it is not only Alan who is under analysis, but Dysart himself, and with this, an entire set of values and beliefs we all take for granted.

Thoughts on Equus:

The story is presented in a slow but captivating manner, alternating fantastically well written narrative with flashbacks. Shaffer’s adaptation works so well, that I cannot imagine any stage version being better than this.

The opening scene is a close-up on an intricate dagger adorned with a skull, reminiscent of ancient Celtic mysticism. This is followed by a scene that feels like the setting for a Velázquez painting, in which Alan stands naked next to a white horse, in a deserted field at night. From this scene, Dysart embarks on a striking monologue that only becomes clearer in retrospective, when we later understand the extremity of the facts and all their implications.

Through his own analysis of Alan, Dr. Dysart comes to realize that something fundamental has passed him by, something Alan himself has embraced with a fury only paralleled in Greek tragedy, and something Dysart only ever admired from afar: The staggering depths of passion. Unbridled passion and worship, free of any vestiges of restraint, is really the essence of what is at stake here. The notion of Love with a capital “L” pales by comparison.

In Equus, Alan creates a God figure, a pagan God that grants him his ultimate escape. Through hypnosis and suggestion induced by Dr. Dysart, Alan recounts how every three weeks or so he takes out at night one of the horses from the stable he works at and rides him naked, shouting words of praise and love, becoming "one" with the horse.. His own sexual awakening and abandonment becomes the ultimate vehicle of worship.  

This bizarre yet profoundly unique act that seems to emanate from the fringes of madness, is in fact an expression of passion in its purest state, and ultimately, an act of defiance towards our human condition. Much alike Sisyphus defiance of death, Alan creates his own Eden and discards his “ball and chain” in ceremonial fits of passion.

But Equus “the almighty” is both a savior and a judge, a guide and a guard, looking at Alan’s each and every move. “I am yours and you are mine”. In mimicking his God Alan becomes chained. In Passion he unchains himself and finds bliss.

And so we have the setting for one fundamental question about life, when for example Dysart claims “I can’t see it because my educated average head is being held at the wrong angle”, “normality” and everything we take for granted is questioned. Society molds people and education removes the ability to feel deeply. Though Alan’s actions are demented, it is ironically only through demented actions that we can be reminded of passion and the ultimate real search for this sort of spiritualism generally lacking in our lives.

To quote Dysart again:  “Life is only comprehensible through a thousand local gods... spirits of certain trees, of certain curves of brick walls, of certain fish and chip shops if you like. And slate roofs, and frowns in people, and slouches... I'd say to them, "Worship all you can see, and more will appear...” 




This clearly tells us to observe better and longer. To not draw immediate conclusions, to not buy into ready-made philosophies but rather have a free unbiased mind, be critical, be attentive, and fearless..

Normality is our ultimate downfall.. “The Normal is the good smile in a child's eyes. It is also the dead stare in a million adults. It both sustains and kills like a God. It is the Ordinary made beautiful: it is also the Average made lethal”

To go through life and call it yours - your life - you first have to get your own pain. Pain that's unique to you. You can't just dip into the common bin and say 'That's enough!'...

Richard Burton gives one of his great performances, if not his best, and Peter Firth is clearly born to play this role, which he played more than 1000 times before on stage.

As far as the plot goes, one could argue that a trained psychiatrist would not dwell on such questions, but this is really beyond the point.

The point is: Does anyone really ask these questions, deeply, sincerely and without fear?

Equus is a film that asks no easy questions and offers no easy moral judgments. It is a mature, articulate and intelligent study of the human psyche that demands to be seen. It touches at the core of essential questions that are often hard to ask and remain almost always unanswered.

Very few people could have directed this film. Apart from Sidney Lumet perhaps only Ingmar Bergman could have approached it in such perfection as Lumet did.

Highly recommended and currently in my all time top 3.

RELEASED: October 1977

Director: Sidney Lumet

Running Time: 137 mn

Cast: Richard Burton, Peter Firth, Jenny Agutter

Rating: 5 stars MASTERPIECE