Buck Brannaman, The Horse Whisperer
By Jesse Kornbluth, Headbutler.com
Published: Jun 22, 2011
Buck Brannaman specializes in the improbable. Got a skittish, poorly trained horse? A bucking bronco? A steed who seems not to care about anything?
Buck Brannaman, The Real ‘Horse Whisperer’ Offers up Life Lessons
HollywoodOutbreak.com
June 17, 2011
by Greg Srisvasdi
The evocative documentary Buck details the life of horse gentler Buck Brannaman, who holds horsemanship clinics all throughout the U.S. Brannaman’s gentle yet firm approach gives riders and owners a deeper understanding of their horse, and in effect, a profound insight into their own psyches. See complete review
Horse Whisperer Buck Brannaman Talks About Being the Subject of a Sundance Award-winning Doc
Brad Balfour Veteran Interviewer and Pop Culture Chronicler
Posted: 06/19/11 03:10 PM ET
Legendary horse whisperer Dan M. “Buck” Brannaman considers himself lucky despite the hard life he endured as a kid. He found a calling that some might call mumbo jumbo, but to a vast number of horse owners, trainers and grooms, he expresses an uncanny skill at natural horsemanship. Read complete interview
Movie Reviews: The Transfixing Buck
New York Magazine
June 17, 2011
Our therapeutic culture is lousy with stories of people struggling to spin childhood traumas into something that leaves the world a better place than the one that damaged them, but I’ve never seen a film in which the link between a trauma and its triumphant transmutation is as vivid as in Buck. Cindy Meehl’s shambling yet uncannily beautiful documentary tells the story of Buck Brannaman, a rangy, bow-legged cowboy who travels the country 40 weeks a year hosting four-day clinics. Brannaman was an adviser on the film of The Horse Whisperer and the moniker is often attached to him, but I’d call him the Horse Empath. He sees himself through the animals’ eyes and feels their childlike skittishness, their primal fear. Read complete story
Seven Alternative Summer Movies
Wall Street Journal, Speakeasy
June 18, 2011
1. “Buck” (just opened) This documentary trailing real-life horse whisperer Buck Brannaman could easily be an unnecessary journey into territory already staked out by Robert Redford in a fictional film. But the new movie turns out to be about much more than horses, as it uncovers its subject’s complicated and thorny past. If the movie is a success, it’s because it picked a captivating man to trail on the plains of the American West. All the pretty horses help, too. Read complete WSJ post
Buck: Movie Review
The Christian Science Monitor
Peter Ranier, Film Critic, June 17, 2011
Near the beginning of the fascinating new documentary “Buck,” Buck Brannaman, who runs horse-training clinics around the country, says, “A lot of times, rather than helping people with horse problems, I’m helping horses with people problems.”
Brannaman is the subject of first-time filmmaker Cindy Meehl’s graceful look at the man who was the inspiration for Robert Redford’s role in “The Horse Whisperer.” Nicholas Evans, who wrote the novel upon which that film is based, calls Brannaman the zen master of the horse world.”
The Real “Horse Whisperer”
Buck Brannaman as himself in "Buck," directed by Cindy Meehl. Photo by Ezra D. Olsen. A Sundance Selects Release.
Buck Brannaman as himself in "Buck," directed by Cindy Meehl. Photo by Ezra D. Olsen. A Sundance Selects Release.
National Geographic
Posted by Andrew Howley
June 16, 2011
For years, National Geographic has helped people discover the deeper meanings behind human relationships with animals through “Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan” on the National Geographic Channel.
The name of “Dog Whisperer” itself though is a tribute to the famous book and film “The Horse Whisperer,” based on the work of several people who have dumbfounded horse owners and crowds with their ability to quietly and peacefully communicate with “trouble” horses who had seemed unapproachably violent to others. Read complete story >
Meet the Real Horse Whisperer
Forget Robert Redford, Buck Brannaman is the true-to-life cowboy in a new documentary
by: Meg Grant
AARP The Magazine
June 16, 2011
Directed by Cindy Meehl
Rated PG, Runtime: 88 mins.
Stars: Buck Brannaman
On the surface, Buck is a study of horses, but it’s also a portrait of Buck Brannaman, a man who possesses a deep reserve of empathy that allows him to connect with four-legged creatures as well as the two-legged ones that ride them. Read complete article
Interview: Cindy Meehl Talks Buck
6/15/2011
Robert Redford’s ‘The Horse Whisperer’ may be the stuff of pat Hollywood drama, but Buck Brannaman, the quietly charismatic horseman who helped inspire both the 1998 film and the novel upon which it was based, is actually quite real. Cindy Meehl’s stirring ‘Buck’, then, is a soulful and delicately illuminating documentary portrait of the soft-spoken man — and a movie that also makes a persuasive and heartrending case for the ability of human healing. The Audience Award winner at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, the film is a must-see for horse aficionados, of course, but just as accessible and interesting for those who’ve never sat astride one of the creatures. We had a chance to speak with Meehl one-on-one recently, … read complete interview >