7 replies to this topic

[Lauren Wilford]

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IShjmWYuHZ0"]http://www.youtube.c...h?v=IShjmWYuHZ0[/url]

Haven't found a thread dedicated to this film yet, so here. I saw this today. It was really lovely. It kind of felt like being out on a ranch, actually, with the beauty all around but also the dust and work and boring bits. It's a sweet, humble tale of redemption. Some really profound moments wrapped in things that are just everyday life to him. I'll review it soon.

Edited by Lauren Wilford, 24 July 2011 - 05:02 PM.

[Darrel Manson]

I wonder to what extent there is a male/female polarity to this. When my wife and I saw it, she liked it very much, I found it okay. At the Movies presented a similar split between Chrisy and Ignatiy. I don't know if there is anything here that would temper the male enthusiasm, though. Perhaps it plays against ideas we have of what a cowboy is supposed to be. Perhaps at some unconscious level it assaults our idea of manliness. (Although at the conscious level I would argue against that.) Having just got home from a 2nd viewing of The Tree of Life, I would say that Buck is much more attuned to Mrs. O'Brien than to Mr. O'Brien. There is a nurturing quality in him. We men talk about wanting to be nurturing as fathers, but for some reason it just seems a bit harder for us.

[Lauren Wilford]

Perhaps it does have some "female" appeal. I guess one of the biggest themes in it I saw was gentleness, but it definitely wasn't touchy-feely-- it really had a lot of connections to parenting, in that you have to be kind to the animal as you discipline it. That the idea of "breaking" a horse is fundamentally off, that that has no regard for the process of growing and learning that the animal has to undergo. I think seeing this alongside the story of Buck's abuse made it really powerful.

I took away a spiritual metaphor from the "ideal" horse-rider relationship that Buck depicted in the end, the way he taught the horse to follow his will until they became one, in an intuitive, trusting relationship. Near the very end, he says, "if you got a taste of that, you couldn't get enough, you'd rather do that than eat. You may spend your whole life chasin' that, but it's a good thing to chase." It really made me think of the way that we might seek to spend our lives chasing that connection, that harmony with our "rider"'s will.

As far as it is as a documentary? Perhaps not riveting, but if it was going to be honest with its subject matter, that comes with the territory.

[Overstreet]

Darrel Manson, on 24 July 2011 - 06:06 PM, said:

I wonder to what extent there is a male/female polarity to this. When my wife and I saw it, she liked it very much, I found it okay. At the Movies presented a similar split between Chrisy and Ignatiy. I don't know if there is anything here that would temper the male enthusiasm, though. Perhaps it plays against ideas we have of what a cowboy is supposed to be. Perhaps at some unconscious level it assaults our idea of manliness.

Huh.

I loved it. Loved it start to finish. I found Buck to be quite inspiring, and I wish I could invite all of the pastors and teachers and parents I know to see it and discuss how it relates to their own style of leadership.

Could well end up a Top Tenner for me this year.

[Nick Olson]

FYI: this is on Netflix instant now...

[Gavin Breeden]

Watched this a week or two ago. Loved it.

1. There's something very invigorating and redemptive about watching a human being doing something that they were made to do. Watching Buck work his magic with the horses was just moving. Like listening to Charlie Parker play the saxophone, or watching a great baseball pitcher pitch the best game of his life, or watching an actress give the performance of her lifetime.

2. I wondered if they touched on Buck's troubled childhood just a tad too much, but I loved seeing the grace that was borne out of such darkness. Buck was tender and frank with both the horses and the people. And he was a truth-teller, perhaps even something of a prophet. An exegete of horses and people.

3. As a pastor and a parent, I have to agree with Jeffrey. It really forced me to think about the levels of tenderness and frankness with which I ought to speak and act among the flock and at home. The great thing about Buck was that he had the wisdom to know what was called for in a given situation. That's the key, the wisdom to know when to speak, when to listen, what to say/do, and how to say/do it.

[NClarke]

I finally saw this film last night (I tend to catch up with all my documentaries in January)...
As a parent of two children under 3, I found it profoundly moving. It is both encouraging and convicting at the same time. I'm also fascinated by the ability of certain people to choose to not repeat the sins of their fathers (and I appreciate how Buck is clear that it is a choice that he makes). However so much of the doc felt like it was a long promotional film for Buck, not just in the way it was shot but also in the perfection of the main character. He ends up being a hero that I inspire to, not that I relate to. Really, Buck can do no wrong in this film. Are we really to believe that being on the road for 9 months straight has had no impact on his family and everything is A OK with his kids? In fact Buck has no hand in the the two main failures of the film (other than living with the consequences, which are severe), Buck's father and the woman who has raised an "attack horse." Because of this, the film feels like a wonderfully inspirational manual or how-to film and not a character-driven investigation of an intriguing man.

[Joel Mayward]

Finally saw this after seeing it on so many top 2011 lists.

I'm not particularly fond of horse films--one of my least pleasant childhood memories involves being thrown from a horse and breaking my arm--but I found myself fascinated by Buck. I've just about finished Edwin Friedman's leadership book, "A Failure of Nerve," and there are many correlations between Friedman's ideas and Buck's natural leadership. His leadership is one of presence, but not power. Great documentary that should spur on plenty of post-viewing conversations.