No, that's not the name of a new Bravo reality series. It's the subject of Cindy Meehl's excellent, inspiring documentary "Buck," which has wrangled big art house box office this summer and is the biggest non-fiction hit of the year aside from Werner Herzog's "Cave of Forgotten Dreams." The doc follows Buck Brannaman, the famous "horse whisperer" who was the inspiration for Nicholas Evans' bestselling novel & the Robert Redford movie version.
Buck's gentle technique with horses involves "starting" rather than breaking the animals as colts, touring the U.S. nine months out of every year on a technical roadshow of sorts, days-long clinics wherein Buck shows folks how to most effectively handle and relate to their horses.
Meehl's filmmaking approach echoes her subject's own, and so "Buck" meanders briskly from ranch to ranch and waxes philosophical about horses and the humans who are responsible for breaking their spirits. The metaphor is simple but never wanes, showing Brannaman's childhood in flashbacks as half of trick-roping celebrity duo "Buckshot & Smokie," brothers whose backstage life mainly involved relentless physical abuse at the hands of their nightmare stage father.
We know from the beginning that Brannaman has overcome his dark past and become the master of his own destiny, so while the proceedings in "Buck" are never less than totally predictable, the film packs a wallop of emotional insight and is the rare kind of inspirational drama that doesn't elicit eye-rolling. There are a number of supporting characters here that give context to the meaning of Buck's iconic equine prowess, showing how the man is responsible for shaping not just their relationships with horses but how they perceive the world and people in it. It's powerful stuff, and "Buck" is about as unpretentious as movies get.
Go see "Buck" at Living Room Theaters or the Hollywood now. Trailer is below.
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