Susan Granger’s review of “Buck” (Sundance Selects: IFC Films)
Iconic Buck Brannaman is the real-life “horse-whisperer” who inspired the novel and 1968 Robert Redford film. He’s a low-key, no-nonsense cowboy in the most honest sense of the term.
Cindy Meehl’s documentary about charismatic Brannaman won the Audience Award at Sundance, and it’s easy to understand why. Specializing in helping trainers and riders work with their thoroughbreds or cattle horses, Brannaman insists with understated eloquence that it’s fundamentally wrong to use the traditional, often violent methods of fear and punishment to break in a horse. Instead, he relies on patience, compassion and perseverance. He feels that there should always be human-and-horse interaction, that co-existence is instinctive and that a horse can be a mirror of its rider, a reflection of one’s soul.
At one point, soft-spoken, likable Brannaman berates the owner of an aggressive, brain-damaged three year-old colt, blaming the woman’s own psychological problems for her horse’s violent behavior, noting: “A lot of times, rather than helping people with horse problems, I’m helping horses with people problems.”
Brannaman evolved his empathetic philosophy the hard way. Born in 1962 and named Dan, he was called Buckshot and, during his bleak, nightmarish childhood, performed rope tricks with his older brother, Bill, dubbed Smokie. Devastated by their mother’s death, both boys were often abused and whipped by their cruel, alcoholic father. After a coach spotted Buck’s wounds, he was adopted by a foster family who introduced him to caring for horses.
As a young man, Buck became a protégé of famed natural-horsemanship proponent Ray Hunt, learning and, subsequently, teaching equine/human psychology.
First-time director Meehl and directors of photography Guy Mossman (“Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work”) and Luke Geissbuhler (“Borat”) achieve a simplistic cinematic tone that’s moving but never maudlin, thanks to the astute editing of about 300 hours of footage, along with David Robbins’ score. If there’s any fault, it’s that Meehl is too adulatory, never achieving significant psychological insight into her extraordinary subject.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Buck” is an idyllic, inspirational 8, an authentic, uplifting film.
