An Interview With ‘Horses Of Hollywood’ Author Roberta Smoodin

When it comes to horses in the movies, the first place my brain goes is westerns but there are so many other examples — fantasy films, horseracing biopics… the list goes on and on. What sets a great horse movie apart from the ones where horses are merely transportation? That’s what author Roberta Smoodin (who’s also worked as a horse breeder and caretaker) is exploring in her new book, Horses of Hollywood, and you can learn more about it in the following interview:

Rachel Bellwoar: Horses in Hollywood posits that the best horse movies are the ones in which the horses are shown to be sentient and get to act, and not just as means of transportation. In watching films for this book, did that criteria sometimes eliminate films that are usually critically acclaimed or vice versa – promote films that are usually critically panned?

Roberta Smoodin: I discovered such films as Buck and Dark Horse because I was looking for the movies with really great horses in them, and was surprised by John Ford’s classic western movies, in which there are lots of horses, but none with personality. Critically panned films are often panned because of a lack of characterization among the human actors, and a lack of action that resembles reality, and films like those could hardly be expected to have great horse characters—more often than not not, the horses were pretty much ignored. There are a few great films, such as The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford that ignore the horses as sentient beings completely, but have characters that are so profoundly written that the ignoring of the horses isn’t noticed.

Bellwoar: As you write about in chapter one, the first silent movie ever made was of a galloping horse, but while I’d heard the story about it being commissioned to resolve a bet, I didn’t realise just how wild the film’s backstory was. Were you prepared for just how crazy it would get?

Smoodin: I’m guessing you’re referring primarily to Muybridge’s role in it all and yes, he was clearly crazy in a clinical way, and obsessive too, so his fascination with comprehending movement and capturing it in the still-young art of photography became important to him in a way few of us can understand. The French pioneers of photography weren’t as totally nuts as Muybridge, but did demonstrate a devotion that exceeded anything in most of our lives. But, really, I’m prepared by my life for any kind of crazy that’s presented to me—after alll, I went from being an English professor to cleaning horse stalls!

Bellwoar: It sounds like many of the same horses that worked in the movies also found jobs on television, yet, in your opinion, why is television worse for horses?

Smoodin: It’s not that television is worse for horses—the wonderful horses could still show themselves to be great. It’s that television itself is such a small medium, so without grandeur, and so created for the lowest common denominator in terms of “art.” Television itself is just a lesser medium, and even horses can’t transcend the small screen.

Bellwoar: I was steeled for there to be some stories about horses being mistreated on film sets, but I wasn’t expecting stories like Rex the Devil Horse. However charismatic he might have been on-screen, do you think studios were right to take that risk in hiring him and potentially endangering the cast, crew and Rex with his temper?

Smoodin: Rex presented filmmakers with a unique opportunity to utilize a horse with a complicated personality. Because they simply filmed Rex as he went about his day being evil, and then fit the footage they’d collected into the various stories, [that] allowed them to live through making a movie with the Devil Horse. I’m sure Yakima Canutt isn’t the only one who was scarred for life by Rex, and there does seem to be truth in the stories about the three people Rex murdered. Some of the best human actors are supposed to be really vile people—Tommy Lee Jones comes to mind as a quintessential sourpuss and great actor.

Bellwoar: One aspect of this book that’s really cool is realising which trainers and stunt workers worked on which films and getting a better sense of their larger bodies of work. Have there ever been any filmic attempts to tell the stories of creatives like Yakima Canutt and Ben Johnson?

Smoodin: I don’t know of any films about the greats of horse training such as Canutt, but Canutt did write a two volume autobiography that was pretty wonderful. And Ben Johnson’s whole life prepared him for his adult craft of horsemanship. Canutt, however, takes the crown in that area. He was a great horseman, and creative as hell in getting the scenes he wanted. And willing to risk his life for a perfect stunt…and his sons’ lives!

Bellwoar: In the same way that there have been improvements, or at least changes, in technology over the years, do you think horse scenes have improved in the movies or are the masters still the masters and it’s less a case of progress over time but judging each film individually?

Smoodin: I don’t think there’s been progress over time, which is one of the things I love about horses in movies. The horse is unable to be anything but himself, and his physical and mental abilities make what men like Canutt could get out of him all the more impressive. A horse isn’t a Batmobile, with better gadgets and tricks in it in every movie. A horse is just a horse—a creature with huge personal integrity—and can only be himself. I love that about them. If humans were more like them in terms of basic honesty and straightforwardness, we humans might not have made world wars against each other. Horses have no desire to please us—they want what they already are to please us, but if it doesn’t, they’ll take a carrot or a mint candy and go on with their day without a second thought. Unlike with other domesticated animals, dogs and cats for example, their desire to please their humans is foremost in their actions most of the time. Not horses—they are rugged individualists, and we either accept what they are and love them, or move on. It amazes me how many people are afraid of horses, though I’d also guess that a dog or cat with that size and strength would be scary also. For me, their grandeur is part of the appeal. And that they’re willing to do our bidding is such generosity of spirit that it’s overwhelmingly moving.

Bellwoar: Thanks for agreeing to this interview, Roberta!

Horses of Hollywood goes on sale April 15th from University Press of Kentucky.