Main Cast: Richard Burton, Peter Firth, Colin Blakely, Joan Plowright, Harry Andrews
Release Year: 1977
Country: US
Run Time: 137 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Richard Burton plays a psychiatrist who attempts to discover why young Peter Firth has taken to mutilating live horses. In probing Firth's psyche, Burton discovers that the source of the boy's obsession is his mother, Joan Plowright, who has raised Firth with a convoluted set of values. Even as he gets closer to the reason behind Firth's horrendous acts, Burton discovers many previously locked-away secrets within himself. Equus was based on the play by Peter Schaffer who received an Academy Award Nomination for his adapted screenplay. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
In Sidney Lumet's cinematic adaptation of Peter Shaffer's psychological drama Equus, Richard Burton must portray a psychiatrist who has lost faith in himself. He is a hollowed-out man in a stultifying marriage who no longer believes that his work with severely troubled teenagers does any good whatsoever. He is savvy enough to understand what is happening to him, but is still unable to rouse himself out of his malaise. Burton inhabits this character with such sadness and such self-directed anger that it is easy to see why many people consider this his last great performance. Shaffer's screenplay allows Burton to have a handful of very showy monologues presented by Lumet directly into the camera and a series of more subtle exchanges with the troubled young man played by Peter Firth. Burton's face, which was showing the effects of years of heavy alcohol use, looks heavy and it gives the performance a gravitas that dominates the drama -- so much so that it is easy to forget about Firth's patient when he is offscreen. More than most directors, Lumet has a knack for bringing stage material to the screen. He respects the theatrical aspects of the piece, while still making it cinematic. His skills do not fail him here. In an opening flash-forward, Lumet allows the audience to see how distraught Burton's character will become before he reveals the patient. And the horses are gloriously photographed, as if the audience is allowed to see them as Firth's character does. Equus is an accomplished piece of no-frills filmmaking, elevated by an outstanding lead performance. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
Eileen Atkins - Hesther Saloman; Jenny Agutter - Jill Mason; John Wyman - The Horseman; Kate Reid - Margaret Dysart; Christopher Atkins; Patrick Brymer - Patient; David Gardner - Dr. Bennett; Elva Mai Hoover - Miss Raintree; James Hurdle - Mr. Davies; Ken James - Mr. Pearce; Karen Pearson - Mary; Sheldon Rybowski - First Child
Credit
Simon Holland - Art Director, Yakima Canutt - Consultant/advisor, John Vanderpas - Consultant/advisor, Doug Doner - Consultant/advisor, Patti Unger - Costume Designer, Tony Walton - Costume Designer, Brenda Dabbs - Costume Designer, David Tringham - First Assistant Director, Sidney Lumet - Director, John Victor Smith - Editor, Richard Rodney Bennett - Composer (Music Score), Tony Walton - Production Designer, Oswald Morris - Cinematographer, Elliott Kastner - Producer, Lester Persky - Producer, Gerry Holmes - Set Designer, Richard Vorisek - Sound/Sound Designer, Peter Shaffer - Screenwriter, Peter Shaffer - Play Author
A psychiatrist, Martin Dysart, played by Richard Burton, investigates the savage blinding of six horses with a metal spike in a stable in Hampshire, England. The atrocity was committed by an unassuming seventeen-year-old stable boy named Alan Strang (played by Peter Firth), the only son of an opinionated but inwardly-timid father (Colin Blakely) and a genteel, religious mother (Joan Plowright). As Dysart exposes the truths behind the boy's demons, he finds himself face-to-face with his own; Jenny Agutter played Jill Mason, Alan Strang's girlfriend, with whom he shares an extended full frontal scene in front of the horses in a stable.
