There are times when I sit and think about what could have been. My life is, like most of our lives, the result of countless stars that mysteriously aligned. One can hope and dream that things will turn out a certain way, but as the poignant chorus of the old song “Que Sera Sera” goes, “whatever has to be, will be”—planning and hoping against all odds, things just happen.
As I left the Metropolitan 4 Theater after seeing Andrea Nevins’ “The Cowboy and the Queen” at the 39th Annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival, it was hard not to laugh at the strange ways the world works.
Director: Andrea Blaugrund Nevins
Writers: Graham Clark, Andrea Blaugrund Nevins
Stars: Queen Elizabeth II, Monty Roberts
There are times when I sit and think about what could have been. My life is, like most of our lives, the result of countless stars that mysteriously aligned. One can hope and dream that things will turn out a certain way, but as the poignant refrain of the old song “Que Sera Sera” goes, “whatever has to be, will be,” and despite planning and hoping, things just happen. Walking out of the Metropolitan 4 Theatre after seeing Andrea Nevins’ “The Cowboy and the Queen” at the 39th Santa Barbara International Film Festival, it was hard not to laugh at the strange ways the world works.
When the first shot of the film appeared on the screen, the audience was transported to a line in horse trainer (and the film’s focus) Monty Roberts’ book “The Man Who Listens to Horses,” where he recounts the end of his first meeting with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II saying, “I had a sudden vision of what this scene would look like… the Queen of England walking in one direction and this cowboy from California walking in the other.”
The film, though more accurately described as a feature-length documentary, explores the unlikely relationship that Salinas-born horse trainer Roberts had with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. A world champion horseman himself, Roberts is a pioneer in the field of non-violent horse training and audiences are taken through the trials and tribulations he faces as he desperately tries to move away from barbaric traditional horse training methods. Nevins and editor and screenwriter Graham Clark laid a solid foundation for the film, skillfully weaving Roberts’ life into milestones in the Queen’s life, while remaining true to what brought the unlikely pair together: a deep love of horses and perhaps an even greater love of kindness and peace. From start to finish, the film is visually stunning, beautifully shot by Geoffrey Franklin and filled with intimate moments captured with a hand-held camera, tastefully interspersed with sepia tones evoking moments from the past.
If there was one thing that was evident throughout the film, it was the fact that the film is simple. It is quiet. There are rarely any moments where it tries to overdo it. For a film that speaks of heinous violence against man and beast, there is never a frame that betrays a sense of sensationalism. At its core, it remained fiercely true to its title. The film is the story of a cowboy and the Queen, of two individuals who could not be more different, separated by vast mountains and oceans, but who together come together to deliver a message of goodness to the world. Audiences found it hard not to shake their heads in humor and skepticism at the seeming miracle that Roberts, the cowboy who had hidden his work from the world for fear of ridicule and skepticism, received a call from the Queen that would change his life and launch him into a whirlwind of praise and recognition.
In a story that speaks of violence, hardship, skepticism and an unlikely friendship, it is clear that “The Cowboy and the Queen” is much more than a simple tale of triumph. The story goes beyond Roberts’ success as a trainer and his friendship with the Queen. It is about the collective need to subdue and enslave, and it calls on viewers to think about what the dizzying rushes of power can push them to do to those around them. As horses’ eyes rolled in pain and whips cut into their backs, it became clear, perhaps more than ever, that it is perhaps the most foolish thing to destroy a being’s will to work and force it to toil, not out of enthusiasm, but out of fear.
“People want to kill me for saying I can communicate with horses,” Roberts said through tears in conversation with the audience. “But horses know,” she said, smiling. Perhaps the thousands of horses Roberts has worked with have not spoken to her as we do to one another, but there is surely a connection between them. Perhaps they too understood a language without words, a language rooted in kindness.
Comments
Post a Comment