Equus

R

1977

2 hr. 18 min.

Drama

List

70%

23 Reviews

Tomatometer

78%

2,500+ Ratings

Audience Score

Dr. Martin Dysart (Richard Burton), a psychiatrist who has grown unhappy with his life, takes on the peculiar case of Alan Strang (Peter Firth), a reserved teenager who has been accused of brutally blinding six horses. Dysart slowly unravels Alan's background, learning that he grew up in a strained household with a devoutly religious mother (Joan Plowright) and an atheist father (Colin Blakely). But as Dysart begins to trace the roots of Alan's problems, his own also begin to surface.

Read More

Read Less

robert p

Equus works as a play but does not transfer to the screen thus the *3* star rating!!!

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A film with intriguing ideas that gets lost in what it's trying to say. Equus is a film about the mundaneness of life and the effects it has on society. The best thing about this film is the performances of Burton and Firth who give their all to these roles. However, the script and direction gets lost and the film goes in circles. It tries to correlate Alan's (sexual?) awakening for his passion for horses and Martin's monotonous life that has never has such an awakening. It goes into detail about Martin's belief that his psychiatry his harming patients and rips away their uniqueness to fit into society and his desire to something more fulfilling in his life. However, he never goes into detail about what would make him feel fulfilled. Martin just complains about his boring wife, life and job but details no alternatives. It is all left too vague. Alan, the patient, admires horses and feels some strong bond with them. He initially connects with these animals' feeling of entrapment. However, he blinds six horses due to his annoyance with his feelings for these horses. The correlation the film tries to make between Alan and Martin's feelings is very weak and could have been stronger with a better script, pacing and direction. The script was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar which I don't think it deserved. Burton was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar in which I thought he was better than Allen but worse than Travolta and Mastroianni. Firth was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar in which I thought he was better than Guinness. Overall, a film that has interesting things to say about the mundaneness, monotony and lost passions of life but fails to sufficiently connect these issues in the story.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/11/23

Full Review

dave s

The story is fascinating. A teenage boy (Peter Firth) with deeply-rooted psychological problems gouges the eyes out of a number of stabled horses. Psychiatrist Martin Dysart (Richard Burton) accepts the boy as a patient in an effort to determine what factors contributed to the horrific event. Director Sidney Lumet pulls great performances out of both Firth and Burton (as would be expected) and the film has its fair share of impactful scenes, but the movie is far too talky at times and the fact that the ‘fourth wall' is broken at length on several occasions by Burton becomes distracting and annoying, especially in light of the fact that it seems unnecessary.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Haunting and hauntingly beautiful.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/07/23

Full Review

steve d

The story does nothing for me but the acting is fantastic.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The best movie score ever composed!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/26/23

Full Review

Read all reviews

Post a rating

Sidney Lumet

Director

Richard Burton

Martin Dysart

Peter Firth

Alan Strang

Colin Blakely

Frank Strang

Joan Plowright

Dora Strang

Harry Andrews

Harry Dalton

Show Less Cast & Crew

Show More Cast & Crew

%

%

Fern Brady: Autistic Bikini Queen

%

%

Tiger

%

%

Hip-Hop and The White House

%

%

Tigers on the Rise

88%

84%

Monkey Man

TRAILER

for Monkey Man

93%

%

Something You Said Last Night

%

%

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Two

%

92%

La Cha Cha

%

%

The Moon and Back

%

%

Max Beyond

Discover more movies and TV shows.

View More

View more photos

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

The blinding of horses is something that works a great deal better as stage symbolism than as cinematic fact, and that's one of the several things wrong with the way Equus has been brought to the screen.

Rated: 2.5/4

Jul 2, 2018

Full Review

Rene Jordan

El Nuevo Herald (Miami)

Equus has the strength of a ritual and in its calculated, crashing moments it achieves a notable impact. [Full review in Spanish]

Jan 25, 2024

Full Review

Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

Sidney Lumet's handling of the material doesn't miss a beat; the only real trace of an encroaching staginess can be found in some of Dysart's lengthy monologues.

Rated: 3/4

Feb 8, 2023

Full Review

Rob Gonsalves

Rob's Movie Vault

Still, an eminently worthwhile film, with two showboat performances by Burton and Firth.

Rated: B

Aug 30, 2022

Full Review

Eddie Harrison

film-authority.com

...something of a dark horse cinematically...

Rated: 4/5

Feb 18, 2021

Full Review

Daniel Barnes

Dare Daniel

Lumet was a director who rose or fell based on the quality of his source material and collaborators. He served the demands of the story, rather than demanding that the story serve his esoteric vision or personal style.

Rated: 3/5

Mar 25, 2020

Full Review

Read all reviews

Synopsis

Dr. Martin Dysart (Richard Burton), a psychiatrist who has grown unhappy with his life, takes on the peculiar case of Alan Strang (Peter Firth), a reserved teenager who has been accused of brutally blinding six horses. Dysart slowly unravels Alan's background, learning that he grew up in a strained household with a devoutly religious mother (Joan Plowright) and an atheist father (Colin Blakely). But as Dysart begins to trace the roots of Alan's problems, his own also begin to surface.

Director: Sidney Lumet
Screenwriter: Peter Shaffer
Production Co: Persky-Bright Productions
Rating: R
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (DVD): Mar 4, 2003