Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2045 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-08-20
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Portuguese, Hebrew
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 170 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
For director Robert Redford the trick was directing himself. The Oscar-winning director (Ordinary People, Quiz Show) says that he is one kind of actor (in the moment) and a different kind of director (more controlling). Whatever the problems, Redford has worked it out beautifully in this leisurely paced adaptation of Nicholas Evans's bestseller, The Horse Whisperer. When the prized horse of New York magazine editor's (Kristen Scott Thomas) daughter suffers a horrible accident, she tracks down Tom Booker (Redford), a Montana horse healer who is known for working magic. Soon East Coast brashness meets Old West simplicity as the reluctant Annie takes her even more reluctant daughter (Scarlett Johansson) to Marlboro country. Booker's influence goes beyond the horse through healing the heart of daughter and mother. The 2-hour and 44-minute film is a beautiful travelogue of scene and sky (with a giant assist from Oliver Stone's usual cinematographer, Robert Richardson). Never complicated, the movie's rewards may be hidden in its length and Redford's tendency to introduce us to a way of life instead of focusing on a story. The major deviation from the end of Evans's novel is a welcomed change. --Doug Thomas

Amazon.co.uk Review
Robert Redford's fifth feature as director, and the first self-directed film in which he has starred, The Horse Whisperer features him in a role he could have been born to play, Tom Booker, a gentle, thoughtful Montana rancher with a gift for healing "horses with people problems". When Grace MacLean (12-year-old Scarlett Johansson) suffers a shockingly well-staged riding accident her New York magazine editor mother drives daughter and horse, both carrying physical and emotional trauma, to the Booker farmstead. What unfolds is a 162-minute film in which little happens, yet which is lyrical, deeply moving and richly atmospheric. Inevitably both girl and horse start to heal, while the mother, Annie (Kristin Scott Thomas), who in the early scenes seems disconcertingly to have modelled her performance on Anne--The Weakest Link--Robinson, comes to reassess her life. The adulterous affair of Nicholas Evans' novel is reduced to temptation and treated with much greater maturity than in Scott Thomas' previous English-language film, The English Patient (1996). Indeed, The Horse Whisperer is everything that Oscar winner was hailed as: an intimate sweeping romance in the tradition of David Lean, with superlative cinematography by Robert Richardson and a career-best musical score by Thomas Newman. Thematically echoing Redford's own multi-Oscar winning directorial debut, Ordinary People (1980), The Horse Whisperer is one of the finest films of the 1990s.

On the DVD: Shot at 2.35:1 against very similar landscapes to Legends of the Fall (1994), The Horse Whisperer has a real epic visual sweep and the anamorphically enhanced image captures the endless landscapes and ever-changing skies well. However, there is more than expected grain, and some scenes show obvious compression artefacting. The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is largely confined to the front three speakers, though creates some wonderfully atmospheric ambiences when called for; Thomas Newman's score is served particularly well in several key scenes. The extras are the American theatrical trailer and a music video for Allison Moorer's New Country ballad "A Soft Place to Fall", both crawling with compression artefacts. Also included are three "featurettes" on the production, Redford, and real-life "horse whisperer" Buck Brannaman, though each runs less than two minutes. The lack of any substantial extras is explained by Redford's comment in his "featurette" that wanting to know about how everything is done ruins the magic of the movies. --Gary S Dalkin

DVD Description
DVD Special Features

Production Featurette
Robert Redford Featurette
Buck Brannaman Feature on Horse Training
Music Video by Allison Moore--A soft place to fall
Theatrical Trailer
Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English, English for the hearing impaired, French, Italian, German, German for the hearing impaired, Spanish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Portuguese, Hebrew
Widescreen Format 2.35:1

Customer Reviews

A magnificent epic
Although this is a truly magnificent film with a great script; impeccable acting from all four leads (Kristin Scott Thomas, Robert Redford, Sam Neill and a 13-year-old Scarlet Johannsen), admirable self-direction from Redford and cinematography that captures the very essence of the Montana grasslands, it will most definitely not be for everyone.

Let's begin with the pacing. The film is 16 minutes off being three hours long. If you're mad about horses, love pictures of landscapes, get lost in romantic movies or could watch Redford/Thomas all day, this is not a problem - time will fly and you should buy this film immediately. If, however, you're more of the action movie type, then the subtleties and nuances of the film will pass you by and the time will drag. A fair test might be “The Remains of the Day”; if you liked that, you'll probably also like this; if you felt nothing ever actually happened in that film, save yourself a rental fee.

The one other sticking point might be for those who read and loved Nicholas Evans' novel on which the film is loosely based: emphasis on the 'loosely' here. Although the film mirrors the book to start with ¬- the horrific accident that maims both horse and girl - the development of the two plot lines is given a different emphasis in the film. Hollywood have also done to the ending what they so often do ¬- as per “Captain Correlli's Mandolin” ¬- and changed it, not really for the better, though doubtless that was the intent. However, this epic is so good that, not only are you prepared to forgive this, but not knowing what is going to happen in the end actually adds a piquancy to the romantic angst that otherwise might be lacking.

Excellent Film
A very touching film.
Grace and her horse Pilgrim have a terrible road accident which leaves Grace disabled and Pilgrim who should have been put down at the accident. As Pilgrim recovers it emerges that he is a totally different horse and is very viloent towards all humans. Graces mum finds this man who believes he can talk to and heal horses. After a lot of work he manages to rebuild Pilgrims confidence in humans and Graces confidence in Pilgrim.
A very touching film, a must see even if you are not mad about horses.

MAGIC!!!!!!!!!!!!
I got this on christmas and watched it the next day....
i was stunned!!!!!
it was brilliant!!
the story was about a girl called grace who went out for a ride on her beloved horse pilgrim,but going up a slope her friends horse slips and crashes into Pilgrim,knocking them in to the road and into the path of a 40 ton truck,her friend is killed while grace has to have her leg amputated and pilgrim is traumatised and becomes terrified of humans.
In hope of healing her daughter and horse, the mother annie takes both to horse healer tom booker,tom helps them beyond belief and changes the lives of the 4 main characters.
the only reason the film gets a4 instead of a 5 is because of the dodgy ending
but overall, its the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1