Equus [DVD]

Amazon.co.uk Review A film adaptation of the play by Peter Shaffer, Equus stars Richard Burton as Martin Dysart, a psychiatrist who takes on an unusual case: a young stable boy (Peter Firth) who, in frenzy, has blinded six horses. Their sessions reveal that the boy has a quasi-religious fetish for horses and he rides them in the dead of night, experiencing an ecstasy unlike anything Dysart has ever known. Dysart begins to question: Is the pursuit of normalcy worth the loss of individual passions? Equus features a lot of hokum--its therapy scenes are absurd crescendos of revelation and insights--but its central question has substance, the direction is energetic, and the performances are powerful; Burton, handsome and haggard, brings a complex self-loathing to his role. It also features Jenny Agutter and Joan Plowright. --Bret Fetzer Product Description Alan Strang (Peter Firth) is a troubled teenager who suffers from an uncontrollable urge to blind horses. As he faces prosecution, psychiatrist Dr Martin Dysart (Richard Burton) is called in by the court to explain the boy's actions, and it soon transpires that Alan's relationship with his devout mother (Joan Plowright) lies at the root of the problem. Adapted by Peter Shaffer from his own play.