A great documentary portrait. Buck Brannaman, inspiration and advisor for Robert Redford’s The Horse Whisperer, seems able to get inside horses on an intuitive, spiritual level, gentling the animals (except one that is dangerously crazy) as he teaches them and their awed owners. A survivor of paternal brutality, Buck is a real hero, without airs, and has a plain-spun directness laced with charming humor. Even if you never ride horses, Cindy Meehl’s beautifully crafted movie is worth saddling up for, an equine and humane essay in life as cogently honest as Budd Boetticher’s classic Westerns. (2011) — David Elliott
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