Of Horses and Men/Hross í oss (2013) - Beautiful images in small, disjointed, overrated debut

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Two horses mate, with a rider stuck on top of the female horse on this peculiar poster for Benedikt Erlingsson's Of Horses and Men

In Iceland we meet a row of men, - and a few women, - who are closely connected to their beautiful horses.

Of Horses and Men is written and directed by debuting Benedikt Erlingsson (Thanks/Takk fyrir hjálpið (2007, short)).

It is an unconventional film with beautiful images of Iceland and horses, esteemed photography by Bergsteinn Björgúlfsson (The Deep/Djúpið (2012)). Instead of a real story, we get several incidents involving men and horses, and in this way the title is a very precise declaration of the contents here.

Mating, death, transportation, pride, regret, pain and tenderness are presented thematically. But when the very short, and according to IMDb, (they list a 10 mil. $ budget!), unbelievably expensive film ends, the film still feels skimping on some aspects. It occurs to me that Erlingsson might have taken the trouble to collect his main interest (men and horses) in a real story instead of all these abrupt situations of varying poignancy. Of Horses and Men is therefore a bit disappointing, a small film that is locally - in Scandinavia - excessively praised.

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Uncertain (IMDb claims 10 mil. $, which seems an unbelievably high figure)

Box office: 239k $

= Box office disaster (projected return of 0.07 times its cost)

[Of Horses and Men was released 28 August (Iceland) and runs 81 minutes. Shooting took place in Iceland. The actual budget is unknown; IMDb lists 10 mil. $, but I have projected it at 3 mil. $, which gives the 0.07 return, (if IMDb's figure is correct the return would be 0.02.) The film won 6/14 Edda awards (Iceland's Oscar) and the Nordic Council's Film Prize, among other honors. It was Iceland's Oscar bid but did not get nominated. Erlingsson returned with The Show of Shows (2015, documentary) and theatrically with Woman at War/Kona fer í stríð (2018). Of Horses and Men is fresh at 100 % with a 7.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Of Horses and Men?

Hidalgo (2004) - More respectable than rousing

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Stars, swordplay and horseback riding allures from this sand-colored poster for Joe Johnston's Hidalgo

The true story of a mixed-race American master horseman's participation in a race through the Arabian desert.

 

Hidalgo is written by John Fusco (Crossroads (1986)) and directed by Joe Johnston (Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989)).

It is a handsomely produced major picture with skillful production design and good-looking pictures (cinematography by Shelly Johnson (Captain America: The First Avenger (2011))). But alas, no-one stands particularly out from the cast, and neither romance, the horses nor the race are extremely beguiling.

 

Related posts:

  

Joe Johnston: 2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

The Wolfman (2010) - Johnston's luxurious, effects-driven remake 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 100 mil. $

Box office: 108 mil. $

= Huge flop (returned 1.08 times its cost)

[Hidalgo premiered 17 February (Texas Film Festival) and runs 136 minutes. Viggo Mortensen (Daylight (1996)) was paid 2 mil. $ for his performance. Shooting took place from August 2002 - ? in Morocco, Montana, South Dakota, Oklahoma and in California. Mortensen bought one of the horses in the film after shooting, and Fusco bought the main stunt horse. The film opened #3, behind holdover hit The Passion of the Christ and fellow new release Starsky & Hutch, to a 18.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent one more weekend in the top 5 (#4) and grossed 67.3 mil. $ (62.3 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Spain with 7.5 mil. $ (6.9 %) and Germany with 4.2 mil. $ (3.9 %). Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. The film's claim to a true story is debated. Johnston returned with The Wolfman (2010). Mortensen returned in A History of Violence (2005). Hidalgo is rotten at 46 % with a 5.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Hidalgo? 

War Horse (2011) - Spielberg visits WWI with problematic horse drama result

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An excessive sense of aestheticism either adorns or plagues the poster for Steven Spielberg's War Horse, depending on your viewpoint

QUICK REVIEW:

A little family is facing the prospect of losing their home, if their expensively bought show horse doesn't plow a stony field. - It does! But is then, by necessity, sold as a war horse for World War I.

War Horse is a grandiose epic by Steven Spielberg (Jaws (1975)), which, however, it's hard to see who is for: The story of the boy's (Jeremy Irvin (A Night in Old Mexico (2013))) relationship with his horse seems to be tailored for older kids, but the film's war scenes are decidedly not suited for children.
War Horse starts well with Emily Watson's (Breaking the Waves (1996)) fine performance as the boy's stouthearted mother, but then the story continues along a sappy, powdered path, in which man after man, during the horrors of war, is profoundly touched by the beautiful horse. It punctured my interest in War Horse, which has a fine John Williams (Munich (2005)) score and a handsome cast, but which seems to me as a mediocre serving from an aging Spielberg, who might have simply grown too comfortable in his plush producer-director's chair to give us something with the teeth that he once could. (Admittedly, he saddled up in a different way the year after with the great Lincoln (2012).)
War Horse is an adaptation of English Michael Morpurgo's (The Nine Lives of Montezuma (1980)) same-titled 1982 novel by Lee Hall (Billy Elliott (2000)) and Richard Curtis (Notting Hill (1999))

Related reviews:
 
Steven Spielberg: Super 8 (2011) - Abrams' nostalgic family crowdpleaser (producer)
Band of Brothers - TV mini-series (2001) - WWII-sacrifice and -comradeship portrayed with skill and integrity (producer)
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) - A robot fairy tale with both heart and mind
Amistad (1997) or, Must... Free... Slaves! 
Twilight Zone The Movie (1983) - Fear takes many forms in tragedy-struck anthology
1941 (1979) - Spielberg's bizarre 'comedy spectacular' sinks like a rock

Watch the picturesque trailer for the movie here

Cost: 66 mil. $
Box office: 177.6 mil. $
= Box office success
[War Horse was released December 25th to mostly good reviews. It made 79.8 mil. $ (45 % of the total gross) in North America and an impressive 16.4 mil. £ in the UK. It was 6 times Oscar-nominated, for Best Picture, Cinematography, Score, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing and Art Direction, winning none. Spielberg returned to the Oscars the year after with the much better Lincoln.]

What do you think of War Horse?

Chino/Valdez, Il Mezzosangue/Valdez the Half BreedThe Valdez Horses (1973) - Bronson is his own man only in Sturges' good spaghetti western

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Charles Bronson, just announced as BRONSON, leads John Sturges' Chino

QUICK REVIEW:

Chino owns a horse ranch that lies on another man's soil. Together with the boy Jimmy, he runs the place, but when he falls in love with the landowner's sister, open animosity breaks out.
Chino has some of the best about westerns in it; the unsentimental depiction of some people's relations to each other for a while. The film SPOILER turns out to be a tragedy: Chino doesn't get his love; has to leave his ranch, and also gets rid of the sweet lad who works for him.
Chino is a quiet film that also has various horses in front.
The play between Charles Bronson (Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)) and his real-life wife Jill Ireland (Violent City (1970)) is hot as usual, although some of the simplicity of the era seems deeply comical today. - As when Chino announces to his love that he wants to marry her, whereupon he in complete earnest tells her, "We'll meet in church tomorrow", - and leaves!
Chino is directed by Illinoisan John Sturges (The Great Escape (1963)), who now shares IMDb-director's credit for the film with Italian director Duilio Coletti (The Mask of Cesare Borgia (1941)), although Coletti is only mentioned on the old French poster for the film:

The whole movie is on Youtube here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown

What do you think of Chino?
And of Bronson-Ireland's other films together?