Never Cinever

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ In Sidney Lumet's adaptation of the highly acclaimed play of the same title by Peter Shaffer, a child psychiatrist, Martin Dysart (Richard Burton) in southern England takes on the difficult case of a young man, Alan Strang (Peter Firth), who has blinded six horses. In attempting to rid Alan of his demons, Dysart must face his own. Spoilers ahead. If a boy of seventeen commits such an act of violence as blinding six horses, how would you view him? A madman? Some mentally unwell boy? A criminal? Or someone more passionate than most people dare to be in the modern age? It's a horrific action, don't get me wrong, but what fuels it in Equus is, oddly, all passion and hatred and fear, all at once. The play takes on a more minimalist form in staging, but to put that to screen materialises the symbols. The horses are a reflection of Alan Strang's religious hysteria, his desire for male virility (which he desires in himself and in others; the play makes it a metaphor, ...