Equus

Peter Firth plays Alan Strang, a young man working as a stableboy at an upper-class riding school who one night brutally blinds the horses. Richard Burton is psychiatrist Dr. Martin Dysart who is investigating the reasons for the young man’s apparent senseless crime. Based on Peter Shaffer’s acclaimed play, “Equus” is a film that explores and manages to traverse a rich field of themes and concerns: psychoanalysis and mythology; sexuality and repression; class and family; sex and power. The relationship between analyst and patient becomes increasingly complex as the mysteries of the boy’s repressions become unravelled. The men’s exchanges begin to be complicated by the echoes of homoeroticism and the psychological overtones of the Oedipal Complex. Though dominated by the performances of Burton and Firth, “Equus” features an excellent supporting cast including Joan Plowright, Eileen Atkins and Jenny Agutter. Initially dividing critics, “Equus” has become a cult favourite through the years and is acknowledged as one of Lumet’s darker and innovative works.