Equus (1977)

"Stunning, Gripping Adaptation"

Sidney Lumet's splendid film version of Peter Shaffer's play is getting a limited edition (3000 copies) Blu-ray release from the BFI.

Alan Strang (Peter Firth) blinds six horses at the stables where he works. Instead of going to prison, at the request of Hesther Saloman (Eileen Atkins), he is transferred to the Child & Adolescent Psychiatric Unit at the local hospital to be specifically under the care of Dr Martin Dysart (Richard Burton). As Dysart begins to psychoanalyse the boy and discover exactly what happened and why he begins to learn the truth about himself as well, and it's not necessarily something he's pleased to realise.

Adapting a successful stage play to the screen is not always easy, often because it's felt that the action needs to be 'opened up' for cinema audiences. Certainly EQUUS loses a little of the claustrophobic intensity of the best theatre productions but Lumet's direction, exquisitely careful attention to production and costume design, and above all stellar performances all round (Colin Blakely and Joan Plowright play Alan's parents and Jenny Agutter the girl Alan befriends at the stables) mean the 137 minute running time is thoroughly gripping throughout. Is this movie more effective than Milos Forman's film of Shaffer's AMADEUS? You know, because of all the above I think it just might be.

Extras include a commentary track from Julie Kirgo and Nick Redman and an isolated score track. The Sidney Lumet Guardian Lecture is an audio recording of the director being interviewed by Derek Malcolm at the NFT in 1981. You also get a new 40 minute interview with Peter Firth and Tony Palmer's two hour 1988 Richard Burton documentary In From the Cold. Add to that the usual BFI extra short subjects (Religion and the People - a 1940 14 minute documentary; The Farmer's Horse - an 18 minute short film from 1951) a trailer and a booklet and this limited edition of 3000 is another excellent addition to the BFI's library of Blu-ray releases. 

Sidney Lumet's film of Peter Shaffer's EQUUS is out on Blu-ray from the BFI on Monday 17th August 2020