The Mustang travels a similar path that The Rider did last year. Here’s a film who’s metaphors are hilariously on the nose, but the melodrama you think is coming simply never does, and what you get is a solid character study of a convict and his horse. I guess they’re prepping us for John Wick 3 right?
Roman (Matthias Schoenaerts) is clearly a guy who doesn’t have any desire to leave prison. Not that prison comforts him, but he can’t work with people; he barely gets along with his own daughter Martha (Gideon Adlon). Purposeless, Roman gets assigned outdoor maintenance, and under the guidance of Henry (Jason Mitchell) and Myles (Bruce Dern), Roman becomes an adept horse whisperer.
It’s really hard to describe The Mustang without making it sound schmaltzy and on the nose. The movie opens with an amazing tracking shot of free horses becoming caged in a confined space. These horses develop rough exteriors making them hostile to everyone. If they don’t open up, they’ll be put down and forgotten or punished with more isolation. Gee, I wonder if any of those issues can be paralleled by Roman? Crazy right? And yet, through the deft direction of Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre (her first film in America!), all of these situations are only observed, and rarely explained, using the actions and activities of Roman and showing him and the horse going through the same things. Those choices allow the audience to piece together what’s going on, as we see Roman grow as a person and actually try to reconnect with his daughter.
The Mustang also never forgets the prison society as a character in the story too. We get just enough of a glimpse of the economics and politics to see how tough any sort of rehabilitation can be to achieve under these circumstances. It also helps paint the people involved in the story in more complex terms. Henry is clearly charming and feels rehabilitated…except he’s given maybe a little too much access to the drug supply of the prison. Roman’s roommate is quiet and leaves him alone…until he sees Roman can do something for him. Even the free Myles just seems like a gruff horse trainer, but he understands prisons on more levels than he initially lets on. All of this information helps give us multiple fascinating characters besides Roman to invest time in, which makes the heartbreaks and happy endings much more satisfying.
Ask anyone outside of the US what they like about America. I guarantee Route 66 and cowboys on horseback comes up early and often. Maybe that’s why a couple foreign directors (Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, Chloe Zhao) have come in and completely capture the majesty, and the complexity of the life out in the Western United States. I wonder if we could keep this trend going. Get Claire Denis or Asghar Farhadi out there to make their version of the American Western. Now that would be wild…