Asahi Shimbun Morning Edition, July 31, 1999
The film The Horse Whisperer (1998), directed by and starring Robert Redford, tells the story of a wounded horse and a young girl on their journey to emotional recovery. Redford plays a -day cowboy known as a "horse whisperer," someone who possesses a unique ability to communicate with and heal troubled horses.
Following last week's theme, this article introduces another film that explores post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The story revolves around a girl living near New York City who goes horseback riding in the snow with her best friend. They slip and fall, and a trailer runs over them. She loses her best friend, has her right leg amputated, and her horse is severely injured. Devastated, she withdraws from school and isolates herself, while her horse, traumatized, becomes hostile toward humans and reacts violently to electronic sounds.
Her mother, a magazine editor, takes both her daughter and the horse to a ranch in Montana, thousands of kilometers away. Surrounded by the vast wilderness, Redford and the horse gradually develop a bond through a patient and persistent process. Witnessing this, the girl also begins to open her heart.
Ironically, it is the mother—who is at the peak of her career—who proves to be the most difficult case. Constantly giving work instructions over her cell phone, she anxiously fidgets, swinging her crossed legs back and forth—just like the traumatized horse. She justifies her restless nature by saying, "Moving fast is a survival skill for a woman in a man's world." Yet, at the same time, she confesses, "When I wake up in the morning, all I feel is anxiety." That even she ultimately declares, "I don’t want to go back to New York," seems to be a case of Redford, as director and star, overindulging in the theme of healing.
A young man in his twenties was listening to music in his parked car when a group of people overturned his vehicle and violently assaulted him, leaving him with severe head and body injuries. It took three days for him to regain consciousness, and he has since suffered from insomnia, nightmares, and lethargy, ultimately losing his job. Despite these lasting effects, the insurance company only considers his physical injuries. He laments that he feels like an empty shell, but escaping this state is not easy.
Severe emotional trauma can sometimes cause irreversible changes in the brain, making full recovery extremely difficult.
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