Horses: The Story of Equus
Directed By: Michael Caufield
Narrated by: Gabriel Byrne
Studio: Warner Bros.
Year: 2002
Rated: Not Rated
Film Length: 45 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
Release Date: June 8, 2010
The Film ***
Horses: The Story of Equus is an IMAX documentary narrated by Gabriel Byrne. It follows the progress of three horses from their births through their very different "career" paths. "The Bay" is initially trained for "Eventing", which is a grueling combination of cross-country, show jumping, and dressage equestrian events, but when the trainer/rider does not have success, she sells it to a movie stunt trainer. "The Chestnut" is trained as a racehorse, but is injured and must be nursed back to racing form. "The Black" escapes from its trailer en route to a stud farm, and eventually joins a herd of wild horses. The narration tracks their stories while providing incidental information on the history of horses as well as the inevitable message about the obligations of humans to horses as it draws to a conclusion.
The primary attraction of IMAX documentaries in their home video incarnations is their spectacular wide angle cinematography, and Horses: The Story of Equus delivers plenty of the expected eye candy. Most IMAX documentraries can also be broadly categorized as "experiential" (giving the viewer a "you are there" experience for some unique activity) or "natural" (taking cameras into exotic locations to see rare and spectacular natural sights). The structure of Horses: The Story of Equus allows for elements of both, with racing, training, and stunt performing footage covering the "experiential" aspect, and the story of "The Black" taking the viewer into the "natural" world of wild horses.
As is often the case with these documentaries, it is never quite clear how much of the footage is captured and how much is staged. One can surmise that the scene of "The Black's" escape from its horse trailer and the scene where "The Bay" contends with a stunt gone awry on a movie set were completely scripted and staged for the IMAX cameras, but other scenes of horses exhibiting herd behavior in the wild appear to consist of more straightforward documentary filmmaking. My personal favorite bit of artifice in these documentaries has always been the sweetening of the sound mix, which in this specific case, means a lot of impressive rumbling of hooves and crackling of earth and leaves foley effects to immerse the viewer in the on-screen activity.
Setting aside the eye candy aspect, as a documentary, the film will come off a bit dull for viewers not already enamored of horses, and hard core equiphiles will not likely learn anything they do not already know. Of course saying "setting aside the eye candy aspect" for a film like this is like saying "setting aside the music aspect" in a concert review.
The Video **
Having established that eye and ear candy are the film's raison d'etre, the quality of the A/V presentation becomes paramount. The following blurb highlighted and indented on the DVD back cover sounds promising in this regard:
Horses: The Story of Equus was filmed in IMAX 15/70 format and exhibited in IMAX theaters worldwide. This video is digitally mastered from original 70MM film elements with the sound components specially mixed and mastered to produce the highest quality Dolby Digital Surround soundtrack.
These expecations are dealt a serious blow by the encoding of the image in 4:3 video letterboxed to a 16:9 aspect ratio. The cropping of the IMAX image to 16:9 contradicts another blurb on the box indicating that it is presented in 4:3 video at its native theatrical aspect ratio. Above and beyond that concern, I am baffled by why a modern DVD release of a film in the 16:9 aspect ratio would not be enhanced for widescreen televisions. Within the limitations of the film's presentation specifications, the image is above average with compression artifacts popping up from time to time like inconsistent grain, especially during camera moves and zooms, but few if any other video artifacts and a pleasing range of color and contrast.
The Audio ***
The audio is similarly "under-specced" by modern standards, with the only option being an English Dolby Digital 2.0 Pro-Logic surround track. To its credit, it sounds like a lot of work has gone into repurposing the multichannel IMAX track for a matrixed surround close-quarters listening environment. The dynamics and bass extension are quite impressive for a 2.0 channel track.
The Extras ½
There are no special features on this DVD
Packaging
The disc is presented in a standard sized "Eco-Box" hard case with no inserts.
Summary **½
Horses: The Story of Equus is an average IMAX documentary which offers plenty of eye and ear candy for fans of horses, but not a lot for the casual viewer. Despite visual splendor being its calling card, the film is given a substantially below average video presentation that would have been impressive a dozen years ago when laserdiscs were the benchmark, but is inexcusable for a modern release.
Regards,
