Buck

I will be the first person to admit that I wasn't overly excited about Buck (2011). My teacher had given me three choices of films that she could get me tickets to and the only one that wasn't political and didn't sound like it was going to depress me was Buck. I told a friend of mine who is a barrel racer about the film and decided if I was going to recommend it, I should at least watch the trailer. After I did, seeing the film became a priority.

The film was a beautiful portrait, not just of a man and his passion for horses, but of the human soul. Buck is a person unlike any other that I have seen in my life. He is the perfect combination of sensitivity, honesty, and understanding. He loves his work because he loves riding horses and helping people ride them without abusing them.

While the horses in this film are beautiful and make you want to go out and ride a horse, the film is not about them. As the title implies, the film is about Buck. There is something about him that pulls at your emotions immediately, and it doesn't let go through the entire film. While he makes you laugh quiet often, Buck also makes you cry. Not because something bad has happened, but because he has truly touched you. There were countless instances where I wanted to cry simply because a small task was accomplished that meant so much. There were also points where you could see pure happiness and joy on screen, and it was so real that it made you wonder if you had ever seen that yourself. Buck is truly happy when he works with horses and more importantly when he spends time with his youngest daughter and horses. There is a look and a calm that comes over him that I don't think most people ever feel, but it is magical.

I can't really criticize the making of the film because I'm not a documentary filmmaker and I don't know a lot about what makes a good documentary. I can say that Cindy Meehl achieved her goal of making a cinematic masterpiece that looks like a feature length production (that was in the post film Q&A that Buck was also at). It represents a complicated and unique man in a kind and loving light. The film does not seek to humiliate or flatter its subject, but instead portrays him exactly as he is. It was beautiful, it was heartbreaking, it was perfect. Buck, the man and the film, was an inspiration.