Search - Wild Horse Redemption on DVD

Vertical-market doco, but for those interested, lovely.

Robert P. Beveridge | Cleveland, OH | 09/01/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The Wild Horse Redemption (John Zaritsky, 2007)

Colorado has an excess of wild mustangs. Rather than killing them, the rangers out there round them up in the hopes that people and organizations will adopt them. In order for them to do so, however, the horses have to be domesticated. Someone came up with the rather intelligent idea of having inmates at Colorado's largest prison do some of the breaking work; not only does the State not have to do the work itself (or contract someone to do it at incredibly high prices), but the inmates get a marketable skill that's well outside the usual skills with which people leave prison. While the program has not been an unqualified success on either end of the equation, it has still done wonders. The Wild Horse Redemption looks at this phenomenon by tracing a few weeks in the lives of some of the prisoners and the horses they work with during that time.

The thing that really struck me about this is how stripped-down a documentary it is compared to most of the stuff we get these days; there's no attempt to delve into the past lives of any of the subjects (on either side of the law) beyond brief talks with them. The focus is on the present, the interaction of convicts and horses and how it transforms both. The documentary also doesn't whitewash the fact that this is not a program for everyone; we witness one convict's struggle to gain enough self-confidence to work with the horses over the course of the film. It is juxtaposed against the others, who all seem so comfortable around the animals they might as well have been born on them. It's a constant reminder that this isn't a cakewalk for these guys, and that was probably a necessary component to avoid this movie feeling like a rah-rah session.

Does have a few pacing problems here and there, but then many documentaries do. Good, solid filmmaking, though I'm guessing it's probably less interesting to those who aren't interested in horses. ***
"

Mustangs offer a new life for men behind bars

Cindy Q. Marchetti | Rochester NY | 03/09/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

""The Wild Horse Redemption" is a must-see for anyone. I showed this documentary to my high school English classes, and they loved it! The film follows five inmates at the East Canyon Correctional Facility as they tame and train five wild mustangs. By the end of the documentary, the audience feels compassion and hope for both the horses and their trainers. The parallels between man and horse are uncanny, and it is the inmates who actually learn more from the horses even though it is the horses that are being "trained" by the inmates. "The Wild Horse Redemption" warms the heart and shows that we all have the capacity for great goodness if given a second chance."

A Must See for every Horse Lover!!

Nancy Koehler | New York | 04/29/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This Documentary brought tears to my eyes!! A must see for every Mustang advocate!!!!!!!.. I hope they make another, and follow up on the men shown in the DVD... The BLM should offer this program to every prison that is capable of doing it...It could take a lot of the unwanted mustangs out of the Holding facilities...This Documentary is right up there with the Cloud Series....If not better, because it shows, in a very humane way that these men and horses are worth something!!"

Soul redemption

AVI PELEG | RANANA Israel | 04/10/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I love this movie and I give it six stares out of five.
As a horse lover and being with horses for many years the relation the common behavior issues and the intimacy of inmates with horses struck me deeply.
From the beginning of Movie the message is conveyed (running the Mustang with Helicopter ,complete terror ) the issue of many horses/mustangs being slaughter in view of managing the population of Mustangs !!! policy which did not convinced me and still does not for many years as the optimal solution, time will tell.
We better give more land to the Horses and Buffalos and maybe control more human ,it is easier to control others ,we should start control ourselves
"