Horse discourse… Equus (1977)

As the recent revival of Peter Shaffer’s extraordinary play showed, almost forty years on it retains an uncanny power, dividing opinion between those who find it too uncomfortable and those who are willing to look it straight in the eye… Eyes feature a lot in the film, from those below Richard Burton’s tortured brow to those belonging to the Alan’s father as he watches his son’s bizarre bed-time rituals and of course those of the horses blinded by Alan for reasons the film takes almost its full length to examine.

One Guardian blogger dismissed the favourite play of her teenage years as so much “psycho-babble” (check out this thoughtful piece in the same paper by therapist Adam Phillips for balance) but most contemporary critics at least tried to contextualise their view of the play with its period: it hasn’t dated – we have. More to the point, religious, psycho-sexual abuse and repression are still very much “now”: the human brain hasn’t changed… our psychosis isn’t “dated” nor “of its time”.

Equus’ reputation has always gone before it and I must confess to being put off by the thought of too much naked man on horse action but on first viewing, 37 years after release, it’s a thoroughly-engaging, mood-altering experience held together by a mighty performance from Richard Burton who was Oscar nominated and Golden Globe winning for his efforts matched by the wide-eyed physicality of former Double Decker Peter Firth (who also “Globed”). Equus is essentially a double header between the two but there are excellent support performances from some of the best actors of their generation: a heavyweight cast.

Burton plays psychiatrist Martin Dysart a man of unconventional commitment to his work and who has possibly seen it all too many times. The film opens in close-up on his face as he begins to discuss the disturbing case that has brought him to his own crisis of faith. The camera pulls away to reveal this troubled man sat behind his desk in his consulting room: he has been struck to the core and the disquiet has invaded even his professional inner-sanctum: an area he is used to controlling totally.

The film winds back to the middle of the narrative arc, from where we’ll see the full story unfold through the “flashbacks” of patient consultation. A social worker Hesther Saloman (Eileen Atkins) has come to Dysart to discuss a boy who has committed an atrocious act – blinding six horses using a metal scythe.

The first response is that this is mindless criminality but Hesther thinks there is something special about the boy – Alan Strang (Firth) - and thinks that only someone of Dysart’s experience and sensitivities could help him recover… otherwise he will be institutionalised for life.

There’s an interesting point about criminality and punishment here: is Alan best being cured or is his crime unforgivable. Shaffer seems pretty clear that reform rather than revenge is the way forward… and there is indeed a complex cause to be uncovered no matter how horrible the effect.

Alan duly arrives communicating only by singing snippets of TV advertising jingles. Undeterred, Dysart perseveres and begins to open lines of communication by swapping one truth of his own for each of his patient’s revelations. It’s not always easy going but Alan is a most unusual case.

Dysart goes to examine his home life and finds his father Frank (Colin Blakely) uptight and not a little disgusted by his boy whilst his mother (Joan Plowright) may be free with tea and biscuits but her social nicety hides a zealous fundamentalist religious views. She shows Alan’s bedroom and the painting of a horse which has replaces a tortured image of Christ’s face during crucifixion…

Dysart gets Alan to relive the moment when his fascination with horses began and we see him on the beach deep in a large sand castle and encountering a huge black horse ridden by an imposing dark man (John Wyman). Firth plays himself as a child and the camera makes it appear as if he is overwhelmed by the man and the horse: almost as if they are one and the same. He touches the horse’s head and is whisked off for a ride along the beach…

The child, the horse and the man

Is this code for abuse or just the impact the combination of Christ-like authority figure and sensual beast had on his impressionable mind? Whatever, he never recovered from the moment and his life-long equine fascination grew into something far more obsessional and confessional…

Alan’s father reveals his confused disgust at having found his son late at night conducting a ritual in which he pulls his head back in a home-made string bridal whilst spurring himself with the beat of a ruler… This masochistic display could be a sign of repressed desire but also his belief that Man’s restraint of horses deserves punishment. The horse or rather the Horse God Equus sees all and has become his object of worship.

Looking for an opportunity to get closer to these animals Alan meets a young woman Jill (Jenny Agutter who won a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress) who gets him an introduction to the stable owner Harry Dalton (Harry Andrews). For a while all is well and he spends an apparently uneventful year as a stable boy.

Yet, as Dysart uncovers, Alan has been sneaking in every three weeks or so and taking out a horse for a midnight ride, undressing and mounting the creature in an act of unfettered sensual liberation… This relationship between boy and beast is one of the things that makes the film difficult: bestiality is always a tough one… but this isn’t sex this is something more spiritual.

Over this time he becomes friendly with Jill and the two agree to go on a date to see a Swedish skin flick. As they sit there smiling at the soft core silliness Alan’s father enters the cinema and, spotting Alan who then spots him... hauls them both out. He has a story about having a meeting with the cinema owner… but his insistence that the incident be never spoken of again betrays the sad reality. Does Alan notice?

Leaving his father the take a troubled bus home, Alan and Jill head off to the stables to put into practice some of the things they have just seen on screen. Well, that’s certainly what Jill has in mind but as their coupling begins Alan reels away: he can’t continue, too confused by the sensuality of the horses just below the stable loft…

Spoilers… Jill leaves… and Alan’s anguished face contorts into anger as he leaps down to the tables below and begins to exact his horrific revenge on the all-seeing Equus.

We’re back in Dysart’s consultancy room: he’s achieved a breakthrough and knows now that he can “cure” his patient but he’s increasingly unsure whether this is the best thing for Alan. He may have committed an atrocity but joyful relationship with horses as an emblem of utter freedom will have to be lost for ever. For the psychiatrist, trapped in a love-less marriage, finding an expression of his own passion in researching ancient history, this seems too much: he can’t fly like Alan has and despairs of finding the right balance... we’re all as constrained by the watchful eye of secular and religious instructors… forever obstructed in our pursuit of joy.

Dusty Verdict: Sidney Lumet directs with stark economy and allows his performers maximum room for expression: rage from Harry Andrews finding his horses crippled, compassion from Jenny Agutter who sees so much in Alan, resolution and integrity from Eileen Atkins and a combination of repression and uptight frustration from Joan Plowright and Colin Blakely.

But Firth and Burton get most of the screen time and whilst the younger man gives his all it’s undoubtedly a great performance from Richard Burton who didn’t always get this quality of material in his high-flying Hollywood career. He operates superbly well in the close-quarters of the film’s set piece monologues and it is through him that our natural responses to Alan and his crime are channelled in a slightly more complex direction…

A film to watch when you’re in a receptive mood and, for once, the nudity is fully justified: the only thing more naked than a horse is a human being…

Equus is readily available on DVD from Amazon and Movie Mail.

Mid-life crisis… Logan's Run (1976)

 

This is one of those films that my generation remembers very fondly from teenage viewing… solid sci-fi scenario, dystopian glamour, futuristic gadgetry, a space-age city and Jenny Agutter wild-swimming yet again. It’s part of the same strain of edgy speculative fiction as Planet of the Apes with traces of the more optimistic Star Trek and Space 1999. The future’s not what it used to be and does this film survive the tests of time as well as, say 2001 or Solaris (the first one)?

In the City

The story was based on the novel by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson (who also wrote for Star Trek…) and it’s interesting to compare with how well the contemporaneous tales of Philip K Dick have endured as sources for modern films from Blade Runner onwards – the ideas don’t date but visual interpretations inevitably do. Nolan and Johnson’s contention was that the Earth would over-populate and run out of resources and in Logan’s world, the governing computer intelligence ensures that human life must be extinguished at 30 in order for the species to continue based on available resources. Birth and death are strictly controlled with humanity little more than deluded and over-indulged prisoners…. Plus ca change eh?

Richard Jordan and Michael York

Life crystals implanted on citizens’ hands from birth, indicate the proximity to the cut-off point at which everyone has to submit to the process of “Carrousel” a mass spectacle in which everyone has the chance to be “renewed” and to start life afresh… or do they (there has to be a dark secret… there’s always a dark secret…)?

Carrousel

Michael York plays Logan 5 who is a sandman, one of the policemen who help regulate life in the city. His job is to prevent “runners” escaping their death-date and it’s a role he relishes; toying with the desperate escapees along with his best mate Francis 7 (a high-intensity Richard Jordan). Their unquestioning slaughter reflects a society divorced from moral free will – everything is accepted and whilst no one grows old they seem to be stuck in childhood.

I have what he's having etc...

But, not everyone…  Logan finds an Ankh on the body of one runner and is finds another being worn by one Jessica 6 (Jenny Agutter) who gets teleported into his room as part of some kind of dial-a-date home shopping service with a difference… Before he can get to unwrap his present she has second thoughts – is it because he’s a sandman and is far too curious about the symbol?

He seeks answers from the central computer which identifies the symbol and its connection to an underground movement attempting to help 30-somethings escape the city to a place called Sanctuary. As Logan sits wide-eyed the system tells him he must find Sanctuary and pretend to be a runner. .. he has no choice especially once his life crystal is run down moving him from 26 to 30…

He seeks out Jessica and after convincing her that he’s serious about running gets put in touch with the group, who immediately plan to kill him. Escaping beyond the City to – oddly familiar - labyrinthine tunnels (multiple seventies sci-fi escape routes…) they are confronted by a group of feral children… the truth is indeed out there. Logan lets a runner continue her escape to Sanctuary but Francis has followed and kills her…

The kids are not alright

Logan and Jessica return to the city to meet with a plastic surgeon (Michael Anderson Jr.) who is helping runners by changing their faces with his rather dangerous looking automated surgery…  He has a rather striking assistant Holly 13 (Farrah Fawcett) who smiles reassuringly in a way that suggests that, yes, there really is something to worry about… The Doctor gets a message from the underground movement and sets his machine to slice Logan to death but the table – literally – is turned and Logan escapes with Jessica… Francis not far behind.

Farrah Fawcett

Finally convincing Jessica’s friends that he’s the real deal, Logan runs away from the city, Jessica in tow, as the sandmen arrive to slaughter those left behind… the chase for the truth is on.

As the couple run deeper the temperature changes and they arrive sodden after a close encounter with Francis in an icy cave where they meet a strange robot, Box (Roscoe Lee Browne) who seems very eager to help them. Box is a congenial robot but he hides a most disturbing secret as Logan and Jessica discover wandering down a corridor containing the frozen bodies of dozens of runners. Another example of technology gone bad: a zoo-keeping mechanoid who ends up putting his intended customers on ice…

Bad robot

Logan and Jessica destroy Box and escape through the tunnels finally running to a stop high up a cliff-face looking out on the sun-drenched ruins of Earth. Away from artificial light for the first time in their lives they explore this disorganised and threatening new environment.

After a quick dip to show off Jenny’s elegant front crawl (see Walkabout for further evidence…) they set off in search of Sanctuary and find Washington or at least what’s left of it. Like rather less angry versions of Charlton Heston, they finally work out their world through exposure to the remains of our past glory.

Jenny in the water, again

The American capital is in ruins; overgrown and inhabited by hundreds of cats and, startlingly, a single old man (Peter Ustinov). Jessica and Logan have never seen “old age” before and star with bewilderment at this relic as the truth is gradually revealed.

But, there’s not much time to dwell on the wonder of natural existence as wild-eyed Francis finally catches them up and, in the library of the former White House he faces off against Logan for the final time…

York, Agutter and Peter Ustinov

Will Logan prevail and will he be able to drag it back with him to the City to free everyone from the tyranny of computerised control?

Logan 5 Francis 7?

Dusty verdict: Logan’s Run remains an enjoyable watch and has some excellent sequences and a compelling central premise. Some of the parts are less than the sum of the whole with the strange Box episode undermined by unconvincing ice and robots and the Seventies curse of overly colourful future-scapes – we’re not all bright primary flashes but shades of grey… and we don’t all live in Texas shopping malls.

That said, director Michael Anderson moves things along at pace, there’s superb cinematography from Ernest Laszlo and the city models work well.

Michael York provides a grounded Logan upon whose character arc the whole narrative depends and Richard Jordan provides great intensity as well as a counter-balance in character:  he doesn’t move on and can’t adapt to reality.

Soul: Jenny Agutter

Jenny Agutter runs and swims very well and makes the most of the few moments when a genuine human connection is required; she’s under-used in what is essentially a masculine film and a solo battle between Michael York’s Logan and the city computer.  Farrah seems more at home in this world of short skirts and big hair but Jenny gives the film a key part of what soul it possesses.

Ultimately Logan’s Run is comfort viewing that is not quiet as haunting as it could be... submerging its key questions beneath the techno-flash of its visuals, reducing things down to the chase albeit a very entertaining one enlivened by Jerry Goldsmith’s super score.

Logan’s Run is available on DVD and Blu-ray from Amazon and Movie Mail.

Nicolas Roeg’s songlines… Walkabout (1971)

The last time I watched this film was on a small black and white portable and there was a little less Jenny Agutter.

Walkabout was cinematographer turned director Nicolas Roeg’s second film and it is as minimalistically expressive as any of his later psychological dramas. A genuinely stunning visual accomplishment, it juxtaposes the Outback with both the external and internal civilised world to raise bold questions about the nature of man as well as communication.

In full colour on a flat screen it is a luscious, immersive experience and there are at least five more minutes of Jenny Agutter, of which more anon…

The viewer is almost overwhelmed by images of vast natural panoramas, endless deserts of crumbling red rock and sun-bleached sand all under an open-ended sky of wispy clouds shot through with blinding solar rays. It’s as if we’re all as lost as the main characters, trying to endure and to retain our civilised connections.

Jenny swims free

Surely the famous five minutes of nudity (now restored after the initial censorship) in which Ms Agutter swims totally free of inhibition, is as much the representation of liberation from the constraints of normally as anything else. Does it have to be five minutes? Well no…  but so many of Roeg’s shots are just that bit too long or that bit over-repeated… this is no easy-watching travel brochure but a challenging exposure – life in the raw (sorry…) with plenty of tooth and claw…

Walls give way to wilderness...

The story begins in Sydney with walls, huge glass buildings and a well-ordered society running on rails, wheels and conformity. In the well-to-do apartment of a business man (John Meillon), we see his wife preparing the evening meal in preparation for the family’s return. Their eldest daughter (Agutter) learns elocution at her school – they are English and must maintain their social tones.

Father looks out at his young son (Luc Roeg) and teenage daughter as they swim in the apartment’s pool: a glimpse of their well-cushioned lifestyle but is there just a hint of something more in his gaze?

A little while later, the three drive out far into the outback for a picnic. The children play and listen to the radio with its distant, false promises of civilisation. Suddenly there’s a shot and father starts shooting at the children, they hide behind rocks and begin a desperate crawl to safety… By the time the girl has gone back, her father has torched the car and shot himself: modern man driven mad by animalistic conflict…

She calmly takes her younger brother and begins a confident walk to get help and to return to society but it’s not to be that simple… they’re further out than they know.

The girl stays calm and for a while you think she’ll be resourceful enough to take them free but, lucking across a small waterhole they run out of options… sacred and tired they lie in wait hoping for something to happen.

They are seen by a 16-year old Aboriginal youth (David Gulpilil) who has been sent into the desert as part of his rite of passage from youth to manhood.

He all but ignores them but, seeming not to speak English, responds to the boy’s miming and shows them how to dig deeper into the mud to find more water.

From this point on the three become attached and follow the young man’s journey through the unforgiving terrain…

It’s a strange journey with their childlike interactions, the girl’s burgeoning sexuality and reserve, offset against the young man’s desire to prove himself the hunter he has to be. It’s funny and deceptive.

Roeg throws in a seemingly random episode in which a group of Italian scientists set up weather balloon experiments some way off in the sandy flats. Amidst all of the calculations the men stare lustily at the lone woman whilst her boyfriend concentrates on the science. Possibly Roeg’s tip of the hat to Fellini and another indication of the fragile demarcation between rational humanity and instinct.

A weather balloon is let go in petulant frustration and sometime later finds its way to the young group briefly joining the ever-present buzz of the girl’s radio as a reminder of the ordered, frenetic world out-front… The boy remembers that his father said the battery life should be 400 hours, maybe it will be…

The trek continues past wilting lizards, a strange procession of the young hunter, a boy with a seemingly endless collection of Dinky toys in his satchel and the young woman carrying an improvised parasol.  It’s now a grand adventure and when they find a big rock pool they all dive in with Roeg’s camera spending those long minutes focused on Jenny Agutter’s fluid swimming style. This is not the end but a high point of their freedom.

Civilisation gets closer and closer and at one point a white woman from an Aboriginal settlement recognises and says hello to the boy in English: he pretends not to hear or understand and looking back heads off to his two new friends who are totally unaware of how close they are to the world.

David Gulpilil

It’s clear he is enjoying this new found relationship and doesn’t want it to end at least not too soon. There are sexual undercurrents between him and the girl and neither is aware enough to act on them or even able to communicate their friendship.  When the boy finally does make a show, the girl cannot understand and can only think of escape from the wilderness… an absence of rules and clear etiquette.

I won’t reveal the ending save to say that whilst you can probably work out a number of routes forward based on traditional cinematic code but it won’t be any of them not strictly.

  
Dusty verdict: A genuine classic and looking better than ever in the new Blu-ray transfer. It has stood the test of time so well largely thanks to Roeg’s cinematography but also the way he keeps his narrative alive through jumps across space and time: the film is all things at once just like the tribal backgrounds of the boy’s songlines.

Dreamtime...

Events may not even be in “real time” they could all be the memories of Jenny Agutter’s character many years’ later? An aboriginal “songline” is also called a dreaming track after all. These were the paths followed by the mystical creator-beings who sang the world into existence. For more information I urge you to read Bruce Chatwin’s Songlines...

There are great performances from the three leads – not just the classically-trained Agutter but also David Gulpilil and young Roeg (who is now a film producer of some note).

Miles away from nowhere

There’s also a commendable score from John Barry which subtly underpins the story throughout – the icing on the desert as it were…

Walkabout is available on Blu-ray and DVD from Movie Mail  and those Amazon people: don’t make do with an old VHS… it deserves the highest quality on the biggest screen!