Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival January 31,2019
a film by Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre
Plot(Spoiler Alert)
Roman has been locked up in prison for 12 years. He has some serious anger issues. Roman is transferred to a different prison where they have an animal therapy program. The prisoners will work with wild horses so the horses can learn how to obey orders. There’s this one horse that is known to be dangerous and hard to handle. The horse gets Roman’s attention. Roman participates in this therapy program and finds it very useful because he and the horse have something in common, they are both dangerous.
Blaine: Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre started off as an actress and she had been doing it since she was five. What she loved most about being apart of movies was seeing the director work. Laure found directing very fascinating and it made her want to try it out. Laure got to direct a play and it felt so good to her that she wanted to continue directing. Laure wanted to try writing screenplays too. There was so much to explore in filmmaking for Laure and she loved every second of it. Laure never went to film school, but she believed she could make movies herself without some sort of education. A lot of directors have started off by making short films before making full length features because it’s good practice and that’s what Laure did. Laure’s first short was “Atlantic Avenue”. In 2014, Laure read an article in the French paper about animal therapy at a prison in France and it made her curious to know how that looked. Laure managed to contact a therapist who worked at the prison and asked if she could check out this experiment they do with animals and prisoners. Laure was invited to the prison and what she was seeing was very emotional for her. Small animals were calming down prisoners and helping them find their emotions. It was unlike anything Laura had seen before. Laure became obsessed with the subject. Laure made a short film called “Rabbit”, which was about animal therapy. “Rabbit” took place in a female prison and the animals are rabbits. Making a short film wasn’t enough. Laure wanted to look more into this animal therapy program and came across one that involved horses. Laure loves horses and she knew this was a project she had to work on. When Laure decided to make films herself she knew she wanted to make a film about horses, but there have been so many films about horses that it was hard to find something that had never been seen before.
Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre met Robert Redford while attending the Sundance Institute. The Sundance Institute is an organization that helps and supports independent filmmakers and Robert Redford is it’s founder. Both Laure and Robert became close and she told him about this screenplay she was developing about horses. Robert loves and knows a lot about horses. Like Laure, they are his favorite animal. Robert wanted to help Laure bring this project to life and he did everything he could to help get it made. Ideas were coming to Laure for how the story should go as she researched the program. Laure wrote different versions of the story and got rid of whatever scenes she felt weren’t good enough to be in it. Laure wrote several drafts for “The Mustang”. It took a while to put together the perfect script for “The Mustang” and that’s because Laure wanted the movie to sound beautiful. It was a story about teaching men how to behave and how they reconnect with themselves. Laure felt she was connecting with this project the more time she spent on it.
In 2015, Matthias Schoenaerts (Rust and Bone) got attached to the project. Matthias thought a lot of “The Mustang” while reading the screenplay. Both Matthias and Laure were curious to know what life is like in jail, so they visited four maximum prisons. They spent five hours at the High Desert State Prison to have conversations with the prisoners. Matthias didn’t care if he was going to learn anything or not, he just wanted to get the feel of what life is like in prison. Roman is so full of rage that he can hardly think. All he feels is anger. Riding a horse was easy for Matthias, but to be behind gates with a wild horse was terrifying. Roman and the horse rumble a bit. The horse gets out of control, Roman punches the horse like he’s punching a punching bag, then they both get put down. As they both are on the ground, Roman looks at the horse and sees himself in it. Roman continues to learn how to handle a horse because it’s becoming an addicting habit for him. It’s also helping him take his mind off all the anger that’s in him. Roman continues to work with the horse. He tries to get close to the horse, but it won’t let him. Like Roman, the horse is not good with people. Roman wants to get close to the horse. Training with a horse is making Roman feel something for the first time. He’s exploring his inner emotions and becoming a new person. The horse decides to trust Roman and they bond with each other after that.
This was the first full length feature Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre got to direct. Everyone believed in “The Mustang” because Laure was very passionate about it. She did a lot to develop it. “The Mustang” was given a five week shooting schedule and shooting it was crazy because of all the horses. Shooting the movie would have taken longer if they didn’t have a professional horse trainer. Rex Peterson was his name and what he did with the horses was so incredible to Laure. Rex would always get up early and spend hours with the horses before Laure and her team showed up. Rex was always around while they were shooting a sequence involving horses. He would make sure the horse or horses would respond to directions. A lot of the extras in “The Mustang” were former prisoners who participated in the program while they were in prison. One of them was a guy Laure interviewed while he was in prison. His name was Thomas Smittle and he told Laure working with horses not only saved his life, but made him want to continue working with them after he was released from prison. Thomas wasn’t sure about being involved in making a movie, but he was all for working with the horses. Thomas would share a lot of his stories with the actors on set.
Jason Mitchell has feared horses all his life, but he knows as an actor he is going to be faced with challenges. What Jason liked about the script was that it was about a guy faced with the challenge at handling a horse. Jason makes himself look like he is a pro in “The Mustang” because his character, Henry, is really good with horses and it makes him feel alive. Next to Myles (Bruce Dern), Henry teaches Roman everything there is to know at handling a horse. It looks like Henry gives Roman more details compared to Myles, but of course Henry does learns from the best. I felt a close relationship between Roman and Henry when they were in scenes together. I think Henry might be the closest thing to a friend Roman has in jail. I would also say he makes friends with the others who are apart of the horse therapy program. The animal therapy helps make better men out of the prisoners, but not every prisoner does the program. There are some who are resistant to change and remain bad. Roman’s cellmate, Dan, is a real jerk. Dan stabs Henry to death, which is very upsetting. Roman gets rough on Dan. Roman doesn’t kill Dan because he has self control now, but he does strangle Dan and Dan gets taken away. Good news is Roman doesn’t get into trouble for it.
Roman’s daughter, Martha, is the only family he’s got and he tries to shut her out at first. Martha’s trying to get Roman out of her life too. She’s expecting a child and she wants to move on and have a nice life. First thing Martha has to do is get Roman to sign some papers so she can sell her grandmother’s house and put the money to good use. Then Roman does something Martha never thought he would do……confess. Like I said working with a horse is making Roman a better man. He’s interacting more and when Martha visits Roman for the third time, he lets her know how sorry he is for the crime he has caused. The reason Roman is locked up is because he hit his wife so bad that she got a serious brain injury. Martha took care of her mother until she died. Roman has so much regret as he is confessing that he ruined everything. It’s a lot for Martha to take in. Matthias Schoenaerts is terrific in that scene with his eye emotion and the way he’s slowly telling the story of what he has done. Roman asks for Martha to show up at the horse auction, so she can see how good he is on a horse, but she never shows. I guess Martha needed some time to think about if she can forgive Roman. She does and she writes a letter to Roman expressing what he is to her.
The auction is Roman’s big day because he’ll be showing people how good he can be on a horse. But Martha never showed up and he was upset about that. Then the horse gets out of control. One mistake causes the horse program to be shut down and the horse is going to be put down….or should I say is set on death penalty sense it’s at a prison. Roman can’t allow that and he has strong feelings for that horse. Roman breaks the horse out and sets it free. Roman doesn’t care how much trouble he’ll be in for breaking the fence, as long as he knows no harm will come to the horse. Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre is very proud with what became of the prisoners who were involved with animal therapy. She hopes there will be more programs like this in the future because she feels prisoners really need this. They can become better people and have opportunities in having better jobs.
My rating on “The Mustang” is five out of five stars
