Buck (2011) (Tuesday, January 10, 2012) (135)

Buck is a biodoc of Buck Brennaman, a famous horse trainer, whose kind approach to the animals has led him to become a minor celebrity in the horse world. Buck was raised by a physically abusive father and put onstage at an early age performing rope tricks. When his mother died and his father began beating him and his brother more, they were moved to a foster home. There he learned about love of people and of animals.

Nowadays Buck tours the country presenting horse clinics, teaching people with young horses how to interact with them better and safer. He doesn't believe in roughness at all with the animals and tries to explain "feel", the idea that one can lead a horse with one's mind better than with one's body and actions. He also manages to be on the road for nine months a year and stay married with a teenage daughter who loves him.

This is a nice little movie that has a very good message about love for people and for horses. It's not particularly intellectually stimulating and probably would have been stronger as a short rather than a feature, but it's a nice story about a very good man.

Stars: 2.5 of 4

One Lucky Elephant (Friday, December 2, 2011) (110)

One Lucky Elephant is a small documentary about David Balding, a circus owner in St Louis whose best friend and star is Flora the elephant. After working together for about 16 years, he decides he need to give her to an elephant sanctuary rather than keeping her working. This is apparently difficult, as she's an African elephant, a more violent species, and she has never really interacted with other elephants in her life, as she was taken for circus use as a baby (a very big baby).

David talks to a bunch of zoos before finding a sanctuary in Tennessee where Flora can live. There's lots of sadness as he give her up. Later he's told that he shouldn't visit her because that would hurt her transition to the new life (those elephants have long memories). This is particularly sad for him.

This film feels a lot like Project Nim, from earlier this year. There it's a chimp who is raised by humans and then has to be reintroduced to a chimp life. Both of these films rely a bit too much on the anthropomorphising of these animals and giving them deep human thoughts and feelings. I'm sure they do think things and feel things, but it's impossible to know what exactly. That we're sad when they are sent to a wild animal park, doesn't mean they are and always will be. They they get scared by new animals means more about their instinct to fear trouble than it does about their sadness of losing human contact. Besides, if we're so worried about how their lives end, why aren't we worried about how they begin - how they get to be in human culture and outside of their natural one?

The last third of the film is mostly about the obese Balding nearing the end of his life and feeling bad for his old, tusky friend. I think this is really boring and that this part should have been cut to make it a 45-minute short.

Stars: 2 of 4