The Horse Whisperer (1998)

I liked this movie very much. A girl and her horse are both seriously injured in an accident. The girls friend died in the accident. With time and love, the girl and her horse eventually are healed, physically and emotionally. It is a good family movie.

Fmovies: If I could, I would give this movie a "100!" I highly recommend this movie for everyone to see.

It was moving; emotional; and truly humbling.

The actors and actresses were excellent, and portrayed their characters better that most movies I've seen.

Although I always like "good endings," this ending is great - depending upon the person who see's it! I felt this ending to this movie was "as it should have been," although I also wanted it to "go the other way." Guess I sound pretty mysterious, but I don't want to ruin the ending for anyone.

I give great credit to the writers; producers, and directors of this movie.

Robert Redford has no trouble with playing an aging cowboy named Tom. He pulls off the quiet, but sturdy cowboy image with perfection. Kristin Scott Thomas portrays Annie Maclean, a woman whose daughter's horse has been injured in an accident. The same accident caused her daughter, Grace, portrayed by Scarlett Johansson, to lose one of her legs. She goes to Tom to get help for the "out of control" horse. Sam Neill plays her husband, and appears to be an afterthought. For animals lovers, this movie has a disturbing beginning. The movie is about relationships, daughter to mother; child to horse; husband to wife; man to horse. The scenery in this movie is breath taking, and Redford took full use of it while directing the movie.

The Horse Whisperer fmovies. Last night I was blessed with an experience that is the gift of cinema - a very very beautiful film that celebrates the glory of the human soul in a way that drove me to tears of joy and gratitude at having had the privilege of being a part of it.

The Horse Whisperer is an exquisite work, with multiple levels of relevance that are marvelously integrated into a seamless story. On one level, it is a celebration of man's great capacity for and heritage of attunement to nature and the limitless beauty that he chooses to return to, having tired of the unsatisfying world that he had created in its place on his path of discovery. It is also a testimony to the process of healing, of how it is an opportunity to delve deep into the recesses of the traumatised soul, and how it can only be undertaken with a simultaneous caring for everyone involved in the circle of influence. It is also an examination of relationships, of the relationship between the parent and the child, between man and woman, between human and animal, and ultimately between body and soul. Ultimately the film is a triumph of spirit, a paean to a long forgotten wholeness and harmony that is celebrated in the film as though it just were, and had never ceased to be, without the wrangling and flailing that one has come to expect of a piece of art that attempts to recapture the glory of the soul.

One of the very many great moments of the film are where the mother tries to understand the Horse Whisperer's failed relationship with his love in the past, as a love that was 'wrong' because they were not 'right' for each other. He says 'I loved her not because it was right, I just loved her'. This clear differentiation between love on the one hand and the rightness of the relationship on the other elevates both to a respectability that is incomprehensible when love is understood only as a manifestation of the rightness of a relationship. This kind of 'simple wisdom', so to speak, is the fabric of the entire film, it is the tongue in which the story is told. In fact much of the film eschews dialogue completely in favour of the vast visuals of American ranch-land, always with humans embedded as part of the landscape in a harmony that seems so obvious as to be almost unremarkable. Among the most poignant of these are the moments between Tom, the Horse Whisperer and Pilgrim, the horse, moments where they communicate wordlessly, often soundlessly, slowly going through the stages of distrust, caution, diffidence, examination, trust and sharing that are necessary on the path of friendship, here shown between man and animal.

The story of the Horse Whisperer is simple enough and I shall neither describe it, nor analyse the components of the film. Doing this would reduce its stature to that of a product.

The Horse Whisperer is a gift, accept it.

Redford and the entire cast is excellent. The music and scenery is excellent. Saw this movie for the first time three years ago. I rented it due to the "horse" plot and it ended up being a very important movie in my life. I was involved in some very personal problems with my family at the time. What was important to me was that even with the terrible situation Grace was in, there was a way to heal. The most important line in the movie was when Tom Booker makes the comment: "Knowing it is the easy part, saying it out loud is what's difficult" Oh how true this is. A lot of good thoughts in this one. It has my highest recommendation.

As with every film directed by Robert Redford, "The Horse Whisperer" is beautifully acted, masterfully directed piece of cinematic poetry. Redford even manages to do what no other actor/director ever has or probably ever will - direct himself in a love story without becoming self-indulgent.

Along with the uniformly excellent cast, Redford's direction and Richard LaGravenese's script, special mention must be made of Robert Richardson's cinematography - some of the most breathtaking Hollywood has ever seen.

Redford is truly one of the giants of American cinema.