Reaction to Buck Documentary

Personal Reaction to BUCK Documentary

BUCK is a documentary that focuses on telling the real-life story of Dan Brannaman, who is commonly known as Buck throughout the film. Buck is a cowboy with seemingly magical capability to calm uncontrollable horses and travels the country 40 weeks out annually to host different four-day horse clinics. Through this film, Cindy Meehl provides a clumsy but seemingly uncannily story that focuses on the life, philosophy, and career of Buck, the real-life "horse whisperer." As reflected in the documentary, Buck Brannaman has a unique means of communicating with horses, which is an unconventional training style that makes him a legend in the horse world. Consequently, this documentary is a richly textured and visually captivating film that depicts Buck's growth from abusive childhood to a relatively successful approach and career in transforming the lives of many horses.

Buck's empathy for horses is rooted in his past as a child of an abusive alcoholic father after the death of his mother. The alcoholic father trained him and his brother in the theater art of rope tricks and trained them to hear his drunken ravings in addition to beating them cruelly for incomprehensible infractions. After a coach noticed Buck's ravaged back, he stepped in and helped them (i.e. Buck and his brother) to go and live with the Shirleys, who had a firm and gentle approach to the terrified brothers. The foster father played a major role in Buck's career with horses since he taught him how to shoe horses. Buck developed empathy for horses since he was heartbroken by historical footage of horses being whipped just like he was by his father's actions towards him and his brother (Edelstein par, 4).

In the making of this film, one of Cindy Meehl's thought-provoking quotes is, "everything's a dance." This is evident in the fact that Buck and horses become so unified and graceful since they share a history or past of whipping and heartbreaking treatment from people who should show tender care to them. As a result, Buck transforms the lives of many horses throughout his life and career as he has a sentimental attachment to them because of their struggles. Buck demonstrates a deep understanding of horses and sincerely wants other people to have similar understanding of their horses as well. His sentimental attachment to horses is evident in his comparison of horse emotions with human emotions in his horse clinics in a way that can be understood by people.

The other thing that Meehl portrays in this film is hard work and its significance in horse rearing and child rearing. According to Meehl, the conventional cowboy values of unending hard work play a crucial role in Buck's life and career throughout the documentary. Buck states, "He does not have a unique magical gift, but that he just works at it. Then he teaches you that you can too" (Harris par, 11). Through this concept, the documentary is seemingly much about human beings just as it is about horses. Hard work is also crucial in the making of the film since it is depicted in a manner that doesn't look like the producer's first ever film. Actually, the production of a captivating and informative film like BUCK requires hard work and not necessarily a special magical gift just like horse rearing and child rearing requires.