A couple three years ago, I got lucky and saw Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron about two weeks before it opened. I arrived, ripe with anticipation for a movie that I’ve been hearing about for more than two years. The model for Spirit was a Kiger Mustang named Donner. The idea that Kigers were used as the baseline model for the mustang herd of the film was extremely thrilling.
It’s an animated feature, but there was a lot of caring and passion that poured into the making of this film. Of course, I’d seen the behind the scenes features on HBO and I read every article I could lay hands on about the actual content. So it stands to reason when I saw an offer for sneak preview tickets, I gobbled them right up.
I walked into that theater, packed with as many children as there were adults and plopped myself down into a seat. I munched my popcorn and let out a breath of anticipation as the opening music queued up and wide-open vista blossomed on the screen.
It was magnificent. The backgrounds were so richly textured that it seemed almost too much to believe that it was an animated film. I admit to smiling almost tearfully as we saw Spirit’s birth and his few faltering steps.
We’ve lost three foals this spring, but this little pixilated foal captured my heart in an instant. The animators gave life to the halting steps, the awkward coltishness and as Spirit grew more confidant and bold, they captured the terribly playful spirit that is a baby horse.
My heart filled to bursting.
That opening sequence as Spirit grew older and ran with his herd was truly a sight to behold. The movie held me tightly in its grip, but then the horse owner in me came roaring forth.
Why was Spirit the stallion in his dam’s herd? That’s fairly unlikely. What happened to the Stallion that was his sire? I’m pretty sure it wasn’t an immaculate conception. I pushed that aside, because I really wanted to enjoy this film.
Horses are curious critters. Spirit sees smoke so he goes to investigate. He finds a campsite with soldiers in it and decides to check it out. I struggled with this, but all the men were sleeping and still. It’s not totally inconceivable. I’ve certainly sat in our Kiger pasture and had the younger, more wild Kigers wander up to see what I was doing.
The men wake up and see Spirit and Spirit bolts.
I’m really into it now, leaning forward and holding my breath. Spirit warns his herd, he does the Stallion’s job and gets them moving, then he whirls to confront the enemy. He fights and then he flights and it’s all brought to a halt as they run him to ground and bind him in ropes.
It’s a really hideous sight. What follows over the next several set of scenes, I suppose are uplifting for some but I found the manner in which they tried to break Spirit just far too real. For the time period, the cruel and unusual methods of tying a horse up, making it suffer or uncomfortable so it would just give in wrenched my heart.
I worried about the children in the audience. One, because the children witnessed this abuse and two, because Spirit showed no lasting damage from it. Frankly, that’s where the horse owner in me steps up to bat again. No dice, there would have been scars, pulled muscles and after some of the things we saw, likely broken bones and legs.
But in the end, Spirit escapes with an Indian companion. The Indian wants to ride Spirit just as much as the others, but he has an ace up his sleeve. He has Rain. A beautiful paint mare. And stallions being stallions, Spirit was quite taken with Rain.
There was some really interesting scenes of bonding between the two and then predictably an attack by the army. What followed was a series of scenes that should have left two horses dead, not just one badly injured and the other exhausted and recaptured.
Still, I admit to wanting to cry when I thought Rain might die.
I suppose the movie lost me in here somewhere, my own knowledge of horses forcing its way against the tide of disbelief. There were too many scenes where Spirit performed feats that were just impossible, but I could buy it if only with a bitter pill.
The closing sequences, however, made me laugh as Spirit and Rain raced across the prairie, the mountains, the forest and finally found Spirit’s herd again. He’d been gone at least a full winter if not two. But the herd was exactly as he left it, right down to the pair of babies. The mares rushed to greet the returning Spirit and his new companion Rain and they lived happily ever after.
At least for a season or two.
I laughed as I walked out of the theater with a pair of my friends. No way, we declared. No way would that herd have taken to Rain so quickly much less let Spirit back in. And who froze those babies at that age? Where was the new Stallion? Pfft.
See – I loved this movie on the one hand, but my knowledge of equine behavior struggled against it. I’ve seen our herd of Kigers drive off mares they know when they are returned to the herd after an extended absence. Why? Because herds have pecking orders and every time a horse comes or goes, that pecking order shifts.
Still, it was a beautiful piece of art and a brilliant fantasy. But take a little horse sense when you watch it, because what they sell isn’t really how it happens.