Seventeen year old Alan (Peter Firth) blinds six horses with a metal spike one night, is soon after placed in psychiatric care. He and his therapist (Richard Burton) then take a trip into the young man's cluttered mind, a place where passion and rite have become oddly intertwined, are fulfilled under a guise of worship of a horse-god: Equus. Can Burton free the lad of his torment, assist him in achieving "normality," or will this patient of his drive him into an abyss where he is forced to question the worth of his practice? A captivating and often over-looked film which will certainly be of interest to anyone knowledgeable of psychotherapy. Directed by Sidney Lumet; based on the play written by Peter Shaffer, in which Firth also starred. Firth and Burton are both outstanding. Highly recommended!

Warning (rated R): adult themes; sexual themes; sexual scene; moderate nudity; violence; profanity.

1977; 145 minutes; Peter Firth, Jenny Agutter, Richard Burton, Colin Blakely, Joan Plowright, Eileen Atkins.