Wild Beauty: Mustang Spirit of the West

This is an exquisitely written, paced, and executed film, bringing the plight of wild mustangs on public lands into sharp relief, without overbearingly portraying the hidden physical and emotional toll these animals face on a regular basis. Avis's film is a perfect blend of science, history, and art, shining a bright light on the BLM's decades-long scapegoating of these horses and burros for corporate greed, and putting the story in a proper conservation context. In rightly humanizing the horses as families and individuals, this is the most impactful animal welfare documentary I have seen since My Octopus Teacher. I can't wait to see more from this director and production team.

The movie Wild Beauty acts as a guide to the horrible issues the wild horses of today are subjected to. Through her emotional but informative storytelling, Avis opens our hearts and our eyes to the cruelties which wild horses face regularly.

The audience is being educated on the unfair and cruel treatment towards wild horses.

Roundups of herd after herd, separation of horses from their families, foals being chased to the point of utter exhaustion and the loss of freedom. All of this is reality for today's wild horses of America.

The audience is being invited to join the journey of Ashley and her team, who are passionately uncovering the details of the roundups and what happens to the horses who fell victim to them.

Learning about the fates of these once beautiful and free roaming mustangs, is heartbreaking to watch for any horse lover. But we have to dig deeper.

Horses are being rounded up with most of them ending up being starved and killed. We need to fight for the right of freedom for wild horses, otherwise there will be none left for the following generations to see.

This documentary leaves the audience inspired to use their own voice for the wild horses, to dig deeper and to support the fight in standing for wild horses and their freedom. Wild horse supporters can support the Wild Beauty Foundation, to use their voice for wild horses.

I Stand With Wild Horses. Do you?

As a person who owns/loves dearly her own Mustang and has watched/competed in Mustang shows, I was disappointed by the obvious bias displayed by Ms Avis. Her only mention of the sale of Mustangs was to bring up the slaughter pipeline which would lead the uninformed to believe that's what happens to most adopted Mustangs. She failed to mention the Mustangs that have been adopted from the BLM, successfully gentled and trained, and now serving as anything from family trail horses to police horses. Nor did she show any of the programs using Mustangs to help rehabilitate prisoners or as therapy animals for people struggling emotionally. Some footage of the amazing accomplishments of kids with their Mustangs at the Mustang Youth Shows would have been nice. I get that she wants her viewers shocked and appalled at the fate of the horses and showing horses who were rounded up but ended up in great situations might defeat that. But she's going down the very path that Velma Johnston (Wild Horse Annie) tried to avoid. That is, focusing totally on emotion and leaving out facts. The value of the Mustang, their strength, hardiness, and intelligence, should not be overlooked if she hopes to convince the US government to take a different path in Mustang management. Simply painting the BLM as villains (multiple times in the film the camera is focused on guns worn by uniformed BLM employees. Some BLM employees are law enforcement, so they carry guns, just as police officers do, but obviously the camera focus is meant to make them appear.cold and threatening to her film crew) does not help her agenda. Do I agree with how the US government is currently managing the public lands? No. But more facts to go along with the beauty of the photography would go further in convincing those in power to explore other options in managing the situation. Going on endlessly about how the horses are "crying for their families" might not have the result she hopes for when the film is shown to Congress. Those holding the purse strings need to see the value in preserving the Mustang, beyond just an emotional plea to save the pretty horses. When the bias is that obvious it makes it more difficult for the viewer to believe everything the filmmaker is saying.

This is a gorgeously shot documentary carried by an impassioned narrative. Really eye-opening and moving. The brutal roundups of dwindling herds of wild horses at huge taxpayer expense, in order to serve the beef industry and its cohorts - it's outrageous! And how many of us would have ever known, were it not for these intrepid filmmakers? This movie is about so much more than horses (though there is much for horse lovers to swoon over). It's about the scourge of duplicitous human greed on our country's wild, most iconic habitat - placing profits above life, family, and ecological balance. What a fine work of investigative filmmaking!

This original film juxtaposes a breathtaking cinematic journey with the horrific cruelty of our government, framing the expose through the lens of passionate filmmakers and the subject of the battle: horses. However, this film is not just an ode the majesty of the horse (although it certainly encapsulates their remarkable wisdom and family bonds). It is a plea, similar to Anna Sewell's novel which inspired the journey, to preserve the wildness in our country and world before the effects of millionaires' greed become permanent. The film implores the public to protect our lands by reclaiming our rightful voice in government. After watching dream-like utopian visuals contrasted with equally surreal dystopian ones, the viewer feels compelled to heed their call to action.