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Posts Tagged ‘horses’

“BUCK”: Tall in the Saddle

Posted in Documentaries, tagged , , , , on July 1, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Buck Brannaman

“BUCK” My rating: B+ (Opens wide on July 1)

88 minutes | MPAA rating: PG

Heroes are hard to come by in this day and age. But I think we’ve got a new one.

Buck Brannaman trains horses. He is, in fact, one of the men on whom the title character of “The Horse Whisperer” was based.

His ability to read these animals, to commune with them telepathically (one good old boy rancher calls it “voodoo”), to meld minds so that no sooner does Brannaman think it than the horse responds, would be enough to make him a world-class curiosity.

But as the new documentary “Buck” illustrates, what makes Brannaman truly heroic is not his skill with horses (more…)

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Buck Brannaman: Quiet dignity

Posted in Art house fare, Documentaries, tagged , , , on June 27, 2011| 3 Comments »

Cowboy culture is tough, rough and taciturn, right?

Slow-talking guys in jeans and Stetsons.

Yep.

Nope.

Thank you, Ma’am.

Not a whole lot of touchy-feely.

But here’s Buck Brannaman, quite possibly the most important cowboy in America, talking to the documentary camera about his abuse-filled childhood.

About how his widowed father would go on drunken tears and beat Buck and older brother Smokey.

About the winter night when young Buck, terrified of another session of torment, fled into sub-zero weather in his pajamas and survived by sharing a ranch dog’s straw-filled barrel.

Ironically, that tortured childhood may have been instrumental in creating the man Buck Brannaman is today, a real-life horse whisperer whose clinics for horses and their owners are legendary, whose methodology rejects “breaking” an animal and instead relies on his ability to get on the equine wavelength.

After a session with the gentle Brannaman, a horse seems to know telepathically what he wants it do do.

“I dream about horses,” Brannaman said (more…)

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