The Mustang movie review

MOVIE TITLE: The Mustang ON DVD June 11, 2019

RATING: R

LENGTH: 96 minutes

Movie Review Mom GRADE: A-

IN A NUTSHELL:

We’re told at the beginning of the movie that over 100,000 wild mustangs, an icon of the American West, still roam across the United States. The words on the screen tell you, “Overpopulation, limited resources, and privatization of public lands now threaten their existence. In response, the federal government rounds up thousands of mustangs a year to help with population control. A few hundred are sent to prisons to be trained by inmates for sale at public auction.”

Written and directed by Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, this film is the story of a man in prison in Nevada who is selected to work with a particularly unbreakable mustang. Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute had a hand in discovering Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s talent in her directorial debut.

This movie really flew under the radar in theaters, but because of the strong performances, it’s worth a look at. Cowboys and horse lovers will especially enjoy this film.

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

Some profanity, including F-bombs.
Men taking a shower with their wet boxes on.

THEMES:

Redemption of both man and beast
Finding the best part of yourself.
“You always want to control your head.” – Henry (Jason Mitchell)
Forgiveness & resentment
Patience
Controlling strength

THINGS I LIKED:

My first car was a Mustang. Just sayin…
Matthias Schoenaerts was outstanding. Congratulations to him for already having 4 movies hit the Big Screen this year and it’s only June! He’s originally from Belgium and won the Cesar Award for Most Promising Actor. I first spotted his handsome face in the beautiful drama Far From the Madding Crowd.
Bruce Dern gives an excellent performance.
Stick around for the closing credits where you’ll get to see photos of real inmates and their horses. Pretty cool program, right? I live in Nevada where this movie was filmed and had no idea this program existed!
Thomas Smittle plays the character, Tom. In real life, he actually participated in this Mustang program for several years and even had the highest-selling horse in the history of the program.
It was fascinating to hear several prisoners admit that the time it took for them to think about their crime before committing it was only split seconds. There is a lot we can learn from this movie about controlling our tempers and controlling ourselves.
That was a legit auctioneer! it almost sounded like he was singing.
The ending will touch your heart.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

The Grammar Nazi in me spotted some grammatical and spelling errors in the information presented to audiences on the screen at the very beginning of the movie. Seriously, no one thought to ensure the text was written correctly?
While the journey is satisfying, the story is pretty predictable.
It seems unlikely that it would be THAT easy to steal medicine in a prison.
I have absolutely no idea how accurate the aspects of horse training are in the movie.

INTERESTING LINES: