The Mustang

Front Row at the Movies by Shirrel Rhoades

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We think of Robert Redford as a “cowboy type,” even though he was born in Santa Monica, California, son of an accountant. Maybe his iconic role in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” creates that image. Or his fine acting in “The Horse Whisperer.” Or that in addition to his Sundance property in Utah, he owns a 250-acre ranch near Santa Fe.
So the fact that he’s an executive producer of a new movie called “The Mustang” shouldn’t be surprising.

The indie film was incubated in Redford’s Sundance Labs and received the Sundance Institute/NHK Award for the project in 2015.

Directed by Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, it’s based on her 2014 short film, “Rabbit.” The earlier film was about a female prisoner who is paired with a rabbit as part of the correctional facility’s “Pet Partnership” Program.

For “The Mustang,” de Clermont-Tonnerre reworked the story to take place in an actual prison rehabilitation program sponsored by the Bureau of Land Management. This is the French actress-turned-director’s first feature film.

She wisely cast Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaert as Roman, a prisoner who has served 12 years in a Nevada maximum security prison for his violent nature that caused brain damage in his former girlfriend.

“I’m not good with people,” he declares.

So he’s assigned to outdoor maintenance. Initially, it’s just cleaning up horse manure. But spotting Roman’s knack for handling horses, the gruff supervisor invites him into the program where wild horses are tamed as therapy for prisoners.

Each participant is given a specific horse to train and required to complete the training within five weeks before his horse is sold at an auction.

Ironically, these horses trained by prisoners often wind up being used by law enforcement.

As you might expect, Roman eventually finds redemption by bonding with a wild mustang named Marquis.

“The Mustang” is currently telling its semi-true story at Tropic Cinema.

Something of a character study, it is Schoenaerts’ intense performance that holds the film together. His shaved head, soulful eyes, and muscular demeanor suggests a convict who simply wants to be left alone. But when it comes down to it, he can’t turn his back on the mustang he’s paired with.

Bruce Dern gives an excellent performance as Myles, the craggy old rancher who oversees the horse-training program.

Jason Mitchell is seen as Henry, the inmate who is the program’s top wrangler . And Josh Stewart appears as Roman’s dangerous bunkie.

Connie Britton makes the most of her role as a prison psychologist.

Gideon Adlon does well as Roman’s pregnant daughter, the subject of in a minor subplot to show Roman’s changing disposition.

Notably, most of the cast are actual prisoners serving in an actual horse-training program at Nevada State Prison in Carson City, Nevada.

The film’s symbolism is pretty obvious: “A wild horse and a violent prisoner thrown together, both angry and trapped.” And in the end each finding a form of freedom.

More than 100,000 wild mustangs roam the western countryside, some of them captured each year and used in these prison therapy programs.

This is a movie you’ll want to see if you love horses.

But, having retired after starring in “The Old Man and the Gun,” don’t look for Robert Redford to make a guest appearance. He’s looking for freedom too.

Email Shirrel: srhoades@aol.com