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Spirit:
Stallion of the Cimarron
review by Gregory Avery, 24 May 2002
Well, at least the animals don't
talk. Not on-camera, anyway. "Sometimes, a horse has gotta do
what a horse has gotta do," Matt Damon says on the soundtrack
during Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, as the film's lead
character, a brown mustang stallion, throws one mean ol' cavalry
soldier after another off his back while they try to break him. Even
the mean ol' squinty-eyed colonel of the fort where this is taking
place fails to do so, and he's a cuss, even after the stallion bites
his riding crop in half. Our hero fares better with the Lakota tribe
next door, though: they treat him humanely, give him apples to eat,
and the horse returns their consideration in turn.
The movie is briskly paced, and at
times lovingly rendered in a combination of conventional and
computer-generated animation. It is also clunkingly inspirational --
the whole story is about the stallion doggedly determined to get
back "home" to the herd from whence he sprung, and, at the
end, how he and his Lakota friend, a young brave named Little Creek,
win their "freedom forever". At least in this little soap
bubble of a story. (History chronicles that the opposite was true,
that the native Western wilderness would be run over by the
"manifest destiny" movement, along with, shamefully, the
native American tribes.)
While the filmmakers take the
admirable tact of having the animals on-screen communicate
non-verbally, their actions and reactions are often decidedly
anthropomorphic, and the Bryan Adams songs that are incorporated
into Hans Zimmer's orchestral score are as achingly uplifting as a
hatpin being suddenly jabbed into your thigh. (Sample lyric:
"Here I am,/This is me...." Well, who were you expecting,
someone else? responded I.)
Our four-footed hero -- who refers
to humans as "two-leggeds" -- frees several of his
captive, bridled comrades during the course of the narrative,
single-hoofedly demolishes a steam locomotive and incinerates a
railroad workers' camp in the process, and gets the girl in the end
-- a brown and cream-coloured filly named Rain. Kids at the showing
I attended were eating the whole thing up. Now, if Spirit and Rain
can only prevent the Oklahoma land rush.... |
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Directed
by:
Kelly Asbury
Lorna Cook
Starring
the voices of:
Matt Damon
James Cromwell
Daniel Studi
Written
by:
John Fusco
Rated:
G - General Audiences.
All ages admitted.
FULL CREDITS
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