Kicking a Dead Horse

Synopsis

Kicking a Dead Horse is the story of Hobart Struther, a wealthy Manhattan art dealer, who has ditched his shiny city life in search of authenticity in the modern-day wild west.

Our Review:

11 September 2008

Like the gravedigger in Hamlet, Stephen Rea climbs out of the hole he has dug for himself, muttering about his own bad luck. His horse is as dead as a dodo. He is Hobart Struther, an art dealer and businessman who has turned his back on the city and family life he built by trading on the material evidence of the nation’s myths and artefacts.

Now, in a search for authenticity, a return to his moments of part-time genuine contact with his own landscapes, he has set off across the flatlands and come to a halt. The horse – huge, brown, with a black mane – lies on its side, heavy and reproachful. When Hobart kicks the animal, which is often, dust rises and an echo reverberates for a second or two.

Near the end, a young woman (Joanne Crawford) comes out of the grave like an apparition – the script suggests she should be naked save for the cowboy hat she places on Hobart’s head while he carries on singing, but she isn’t – a vision of worldly flesh now subsumed in the hi...

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Latest User Review

Anne Marie Kerr - 30 July 2009:

i like watching stephen rea movies he does well in films and movies from Anne Marie...

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