Today, I will share a story of mutual healing between humans and animals, but the protagonists are more special, a felon and a wild horse, from "Wild Horse", a new work by Laurie de Clermont, director of "The Bad Deeds ".
A wild horse's redemption
The protagonist of "Mustang" is a felon named Roman Coleman. During an argument, he lost control of his emotions and seriously injured his wife. He was also sentenced to 12 years in prison.
But Roman is not a person who advocates violence in essence, he just has some obstacles in controlling his emotions. The serious mistake made this time out of control caused Roman to close himself for more than ten years.
He was afraid that he would cause harm to others again, refused his daughter's visit, refused the help of a psychiatrist, and refused to leave the prison even when his sentence was over. He just wanted to spend his life behind bars.
Fortunately, life has not given up on him, and the prison provided Roman with a rehabilitation treatment - horse training.
In the grasslands and deserts of the western United States, wild horses are scattered in large numbers. After 2017, the number of these wild horses has reached as high as 86,000, three times the sustainable number.
In order to maintain ecological balance, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management launched the "Wild Horse Project", which allows prison inmates to domesticate wild horses. Each prisoner is assigned to tame a wild horse. After 5 weeks of training, they will display their domestication at auction. results.
At the beginning of accepting the "Wild Horse Project", the lonely Roman could only shovel horse dung every day and do the most basic work. He also has no interest in this rehabilitation program, does not chat with his fellow inmates in his room, and does not want to be exposed to the world.
Until one day, a wild horse in solitary confinement piqued his interest. This fierce horse kept ramming in the fence, and even the sound of breathing was full of irritable anger.
No one dared to approach it, and the entire fence was marked with "danger not to enter". Roman couldn't help but walked into the fence. In the eyes of the horse, he saw himself.
The farmer, Mr. Miles, denounced Roman's ignorance, but he also saw Roman's fate with the horse. Roman was finally allowed to learn how to train a horse, the fiercest of wild horses.
In the process of training horses, Roman had his first friend in prison, a black Henry.
Henry was appointed by Mr. Miles to teach Roman how to train horses. He was not only skilled in horse training, but also enthusiastic, in stark contrast to the taciturn Roman.
The first lesson Henry gave Roman was: "If you wanna control your horse, first you gotta control yourself."
Under Henry's guidance, Roman took the top spot in the first confrontation with the fierce horse. Facing the fierce horse's constant provocation, he broke away from the silent and restrained shell for the first time and yelled at the fierce horse: "Back up. !"
The Mustang developed a sense of boundaries and began to obey. Roman named it "Marquis".
In the second confrontation, Marquis went mad and kicked Roman to the ground mercilessly. Roman was not only bleeding from the injury, but also punished by the prison guards and put in a single-person prison.
But Roman has begun to change. Instead of resisting passively, he bought a magazine from a fellow prisoner to study the techniques of 18th-century knights to tame wild horses. He began to learn to communicate with Marquis in a gentle way.
To keep the horses safe on the eve of the storm. Every prisoner needs to take his tame wild horse to the kitchen for shelter from the rain.
Roman thought that Marquis would not obey the command, but this time he was surprisingly docile and followed Roman into the kitchen.
Roman, who had successfully completed his mission, finally no longer had to wear a prison uniform. He changed into a western cowboy outfit and started a new chapter.
The last item in horse training is the intimate communication between people and horses. Roman has tried for a long time and exhausted all means, but Marquis refused his closeness and touch. Roman could only slap the railing again and again to suppress his anger.
He finally couldn't help yelling at Marquis, and the emotions that had been building up for a long time broke out completely.
When Roman lost control of his emotions and sat on the ground disheartened, Marquis seemed to understand his loss and slowly came to his side, gently rubbed him and comforted him. This irritable tough guy and this irascible fierce horse finally unloaded their hearts and became each other's partners.
tears of a father
"Mustang" is not a movie with a strong plot. Although it is a story that takes place in a prison, it does not show too many more impactful plots such as violence and private transactions between prisoners.
The director always focuses on the taciturn Roman, showing his anger, sadness and love with restraint and restraint.
Roman has a prominent tattoo on his left forearm that reads "Martha" (Martha), the name of his daughter.
Martha was only six years old when Roman injured his wife. From childhood, Martha has had to take care of her mother alone (although it is not stated in the film, it seems that the price of Roman's rage out of control is to beat his wife to paralysis).
Even so, little Martha wrote letters to the prison and to her father over and over again. She felt that as long as she wrote honestly and prayed sincerely, she could help her father get bail, and he would come back to her.
But Roman did not reply to a letter. At first, she thought that her application was not approved because of her poor writing. When she got older, she thought it was because her father didn't love her and didn't want to come out to be with her, so she stopped writing letters.
Roman is not unwilling to reply, but he is afraid to reply. He didn't know how to face his daughter, so he chose to be indifferent. He even deliberately gave Masha a cold look, just to make his daughter look at him as little as possible.
As little as the beginning of the film, the father misidentified his daughter's back because he rarely saw his daughter, and almost sat in front of the wrong person.
This is a heart knot that has become deeper and deeper because of a big mistake. Both father and daughter love each other deeply, but they have to use the most indifferent and hurtful words to confront each other.
It was not until Romain rediscovered himself in the process of taming Marquis that he finally plucked up the courage to write to his daughter for the first time, asking her to come and see him, face-to-face with his disappointments, fears and regrets, and his constant The love that I have never spoken to my daughter.
In the whole film, this is the only time the tough guy Roman shed tears. He sobbed in front of Martha, not begging his daughter to forgive him, but only begging her to watch his and Marquis' final performance.
He wants his daughter to see that Dad has learned to say goodbye to the past and become a better person.
But Romain hoped again and again, but Martha still didn't come. When Roman was showing the horses to buyers, a helicopter flew over the sky, and the loud noise alarmed Marquis.
The frightened Marquis threw Roman, who was still in a trance because his daughter didn't come, to the ground. The crowd was shocked, and soon Marquis was brought under control.
In addition to warmth, the "Wild Horse Project" also has a cold side. Unbeknownst to Roman, wild horses that cannot be tamed within five weeks will be euthanized.
Roman couldn't believe his ears when the farmer, Mr. Miles, said angrily that the horse was going to lose his life because of your negligence.
At the risk of being suspected of escaping by prison guards, he smashed two iron gates with his bare hands and released Marquis back to nature.
When the prison guard finally arrived, Roman was kneeling on the ground with his head in his hands. He watched Marquis run into the distance with a rare tenderness in his eyes, and the corners of his mouth rose slightly.
His heart was finally free with this untamable wild horse .
a prisoner's freedom
Frankly speaking, "Mustang" is not a "good-looking" film in the traditional sense. The rhythm of the film is gentle, and the hero Roman does not have much to say. There is no strong conflict, or even almost no reversal.
It is more suitable for quiet, cool summer nights, when you can settle down, enjoy it quietly, watch the light on the screen fade, watch this once sinful man, reborn little by little.
Roman still chose to spend the rest of his life in prison, and his daughter Martha also respected his decision, and the two tried to take the first step in reconciliation.
Wild horses imprisoned by humans, and humans imprisoned by themselves. There is no clear answer as to who redeemed whom.
Roman looked out from the small window of the prison cell and saw Marquis running freely in the desert.
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