Info

• Scarlett As: Grace MacLean
• Other Cast: Robert Redford, Kristin Scott Thomas, Sam Neill, and Dianne Wiest
• Directed by: Robert Redford
• Written by: Nick Evans | Eric Roth | Richard LaGravenese
• Release Year: 1997
• Genre:
• Rating: PG (usa) / PG (uk)
• Filming locations: Livingston, Montana, USA
• Production companies: Touchstone Pictures | Wildwood Enterprises

Sypnosis

It’s a wonderful winter morning, the sun is shining and there’s snow everywhere. A morning to go horse riding, thinks Grace when she wakes up in the weekend cabin in the countryside. Judith, her best friend, thinks just the same at her place nearby. So the two meet, giggle around, behave like typical happy 14-year olds – and set off for horse riding. At the same time, Robert, Grace’s father, is still asleep and Annie, her mother, has just finished her jogging tour in New York’s streets and is going to the office. She’s is the editor of a Magazine.

However typical this may be for a MacLean weekend, it won’t end typically. Judith and Grace have a terrible accident while riding. As a result, Judith dies and Grace loses a leg. Pilgrim, Grace’s horse, is traumatized too.
Now, in this time of crisis, long existing family problems come to the surface. Like, why would Annie spend the weekend working in New York all by herself while her husband and daughter are having a great time in the countryside? And why does Robert put up with that? And what about Grace, an only child with a perfect mother? Pilgrim is the mirror of the feelings of everyone, especially Grace. Annie finds that out, and thinks that the only way to help Grace cope with the tragedy is to find a way to cure the troubled horse. So she’s looking for a ‘Horse Whisperer’.

Premiers

London Premiere Date August 26th 1998 Location Curzon Mayfair, London UK Photos To View The Full Set Click Here

Test

Australia Premiere Date Unknow 1998 Location Australia Photos To View The Full Set Click Here

Test

From the Gallery

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Trailer

Trivia & Facts

• Although Scarlett Johansson got an “introducing” credit on this movie, it was actually her seventh role in a feature film.
• Robert Redford and Scarlett Johansson appeared in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and Avengers: Endgame (2019).
• Dame Kristin Scott Thomas and Scarlett Johansson also appeared as mother and daughter in The Other Boleyn Girl (2008) and My Mother’s Wedding (2023).
• This movie was filmed in the same area as another Robert Redford movie, A River Runs Through It (1992), up the Boulder Valley, south of a small Montana town called Big Timber.
• Robert Redford acquired the screen rights to Nick Evans’ book before the novel was published.
• This was the first movie directed by Robert Redford in which he appeared on-screen. However, he previously served as the narrator of A River Runs Through It (1992).
• Actor, producer, and director Robert Redford broke a toe in filming when a horse stepped on it. Sam Neill trod on his foot shortly afterwards and the two had a falling out that slowed filming for two months.
• Listed in the closing credits as “Equine Technical Advisor” is a man named Buck Brannaman. He’s the subject of a documentary titled Buck (2011), which relates his own troubled past and how he became a “horse whisperer”. In this movie movie, there’s a picture of Buck and his brother Smokie Brannaman in the montage of old family photos during a scene at the Booker home. It’s the one with two young boys with Santa Claus; Buck is the boy on the left.
• Theatrical movie debut of Kate Bosworth (Judith). She was chosen as they required an experienced rider for her role.
• This was Jeanette Nolan’s final theatrical movie before her death on June 5, 1998, at the age of eighty-six. She died only three weeks after this movie was released. Her late son Tim McIntire had co-starred with Robert Redford in Brubaker (1980).
• John Barry’s original score for this movie was rejected. It ultimately became his concept album, “The Beyondness Of Things”.
• Natalie Portman withdrew from the starring role in this movie to appear in “The Diary of Anne Frank” on Broadway instead.
• “Horse whispering” is somewhat of a misnomer. Native Americans would sometimes tame a horse by jumping on its back and biting its ear to make it stop bucking (the pain would be worse if the rider’s teeth were jerked by the horse’s head). Some observers misunderstood what was happening and assumed the rider was whispering in the horse’s ear to calm it.
• In the early scenes in New York City, this movie is presented in a standard 1.85:1 aspect ratio. As the location shifts to Montana, the movie widens the viewing area to a 2.35:1 aspect ratio.
• Scenes filmed with actress and singer Betty Buckley were ultimately cut from the final movie.
• Dame Emma Thompson was originally tipped for the female lead.
• After A River Runs Through It (1992), this is the second movie directed by Robert Redford that was set in Montana and where one of the main characters has the surname MacLean. However, this is purely coincidental, as the characters are derived from novels that were written by two different authors nineteen years apart.
• The cast includes three Oscar winners: Robert Redford, Dianne Wiest, and Chris Cooper; and two Oscar nominees: Dame Kristin Scott Thomas and Scarlett Johansson.
• In the book, Pilgrim is dark bay, rather than chestnut, and a Morgan horse. Gulliver (Judith’s horse) is the chestnut.
• Lucas Black turned down a part in this movie as they wanted him to change his accent.
• Sharon Stone wanted the role of Annie MacLean.

Box office

• Budget: $60,000,000 (estimated)
• Opening weekend US & Canada: $13,685,488
• Gross US & Canada: $75,383,563
• Gross worldwide: $186,883,563

Goofs

• When Grace is watching the show jumping, the commentator says “Pilgrim moves with absolute confidence at the command of Ms. McLean.” This makes it clear that it is Grace and Pilgrim jumping. However, the Pilgrim on the TV is a bay with a white blaze. The Pilgrim throughout the film is chestnut with a small white star.
• When Booker first goes to see the horse at the hotel and it runs out of the barn it has a big white blaze that covers most of the face, but in subsequent shots it has only a small star on the forehead.
• When Tom goes the motel to see the horse, his hat changes styles between shots.
• When Tom is sitting in the tall grass after being dunked in the creek, his shirt is dry, but later the shirt is wet again.
• When Gulliver falls, it is clear that he damages his fetlock (ankle) badly. Once he is on the road his fetlock seems to be fine.
• Tom Booker removes the rope looped around Pilgrim’s pastern, but when the horse is getting to his feet after being “rocked up” the rope is still looped. When Grace begins to ride him, the rope is once again off.
• When Tom Booker is teaching Grace MacLean to drive his truck, they open the doors to get in, and a cattle prod is sitting on the rear window gun rack. In the next shot the cattle prod has disappeared.
• There is inconsistency with the mud covering Pilgrim throughout the movie. Even though he has been almost submerged in water on the ranch at least twice, the mud covering him is present, then it disappears, and is back again, as if the horse never was exposed to any water at all.
• When Tom is working on the horse outdoors, close-ups show a rope halter while wider shots show the horse wearing leather.
• Gulliver’s protective bandaging changes from red to white (when he rears up). The bandages disappear when he breaks his ankle and slides down the bank but are present in the next shot.
• The black horse, Gulliver, is seen stumbling and falling to his knees. In the next continious shot, he is back on his feet, although we didnt see him rise.
• When Tom lassos Pilgrim for the first time, you can briefly see that the bucking horse has two ropes around his neck instead of just the one Tom uses.
• Briefly, we see the legs of Pilgrim sliding down the bank ahead of the other horse but it is the other horse who reaches the road first. Also Pilgrim alternates between standing and lying as he slides down the bank.
• When Grace first wakes up in the hospital there is a close-up of her face and a cloth or bandage can be seen on her forehead. On the revealing shot, there is nothing there and Annie is seen grabbing a cool cloth and placing it on Grace’s forehead.
• The time displayed on Annie’s watch when she says goodbye to Tom.

Scarlett/Others On The Movie

• Scarlett about her role: “I just thought what an incredible role it was, and I remember turning to my mom, and saying: whoever gets this role is the luckiest girl in the entire world. I am able to identify with the reality of this character which is something you don’t see often. When you get a script and it’s a real, live person that you’re reading, That’s what makes it so appealing, that’s what you identify with. I’d never ridden once before, and it was interesting to learn about that. I learnt to appreciate the relationship between horse and rider. I’ve always admired them from afar, but never had the chance to really study them this close before. I wasn’t a horse person before I made the movie, but I certainly am now. There were dozens of horses used in the film and I got to bond with several of them. They’re so adorable. I’m aware I’ve just had the role of a lifetime, so it’s difficult to find something that really excites me.’”
• Scarlett on Robert Redford: “What I learnt from him is patience, as he’s such a very patient person, and also simplicity. He keeps everything very simple and it really helps to define the dialogue and the film itself. He is the same patient listener that his character is in The Horse Whisperer. Because he’s had his own children and grandchildren, he knows what questions to ask about school, parents and friends. I didn’t like calling him Mr. Redford and I didn’t think it was respectful to call him Bob like every one else, so I settled on Booie because he called me Boo.”
• Scarlett about meeting Robert Redford: “I was much more in awe when I met with Rob Reiner when I was eight years old for North. I knew him from reruns of All in the Family. I’d already met a screen legend when I played Sean Connery’s daughter in Just Cause, so I guess you can say I was ready for Robert Redford.”
• Robert Redford (director): “Scarlett is 13 going on 30.”
• Kristin Scott Thomas: “Scarlett is a very young actress, but she’s not inexperienced. She’s born to be on a movie set. It’s extraordinary. And I thought we worked well as a mother and daughter. There was definitely a chemistry there which was a relief, because it’s not at all eas
• Mike Boyle (head wrangler): “Some of the other actors needed a little brushing up. I think Scarlett Johansson started out pretty scared, but she’s one of those people who doesn’t say she’s scared or show fear. And she made a two hundred per cent change and improvement. She got to where I could put her on any horse on the set and she could just lope off and have fun.”

Quotes

Tom Booker: There was a boy from the Blackfeet reservation, he used to do some work around here for a while. Sixteen, strong kid, good kid. He and I were really, really good friends. One day he went swimming and dove headfirst into the lake… and right into a rock. And it snapped his neck, paralyzed him. And after the accident I’d look in on him from time to time. But he wasn’t there. It was like his mind, his spirit, whatever you want to call it, just disappeared. The only thing left was just anger. Just sort of as if the… the boy I once knew just went somewhere else.
Grace: I know where he goes.
Tom Booker: I know you do. Don’t you disappear. You do whatever you have to do to hold on.

Grace: Are you afraid of anything, Tom Booker?
Tom Booker: Of growing old. Being of no use.

Annie: Don’t they believe in signs around here?
Grace: What would they say? Ten miles to big rock. Twenty miles to bigger rock.

Grace: I’ve decided about Pilgrim.
Annie: Oh.
Grace: I think we should put him down. It’s not fair to let him suffer.
Annie: Well I think that’s a very…
Grace: And maybe we should put me down too.

Grace: Why do you always wear that hat?
Joe Booker: Cuz it fits my head. Wanna try it on?

Tom Booker: Hey, Grace?
Grace: Hmm?
Tom Booker: What went on out there with Pilgrim?
[Grace says nothing, just turns toward the truck’s rear]
Tom Booker: See Grace, I’ve got a problem. When I work with a horse, I like to know its history. Now sometimes, a horse, in their own way, can pretty much tell you the whole story. But sometimes, they get so messed up in their head that you need more to go on. Now I don’t know how you feel about talking about it. And if you don’t feel like it, I understand. But if I’m gonna figure out what’s going on in his head, it sure would help me if I understood exactly what happened that day. You know, not today. Whenever you feel like it. I’ll leave that up to you.

[Upon having her leg amputated]
Grace: Who’s going to want me now?

[first lines]
Judith: [waves] Hello!
Grace: [waves] Hello!

Tom Booker: Is she going to be long?
Grace: Probably, she’s on the phone 23 hours a day.
Tom Booker: What does she do?
Grace: She’s an editor.
Tom Booker: An editor? Ah.
Grace: Just in case she hasn’t told you, which she probably hasn’t, I don’t want to be a part of this. Okay?

Tech specs

• Runtime: 2h 49m(169 min)
• Color: Color
• Sound mix: DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS
• Aspect ratio: 1.85 : 1(reels 1 and 2) | 2.35 : 1(reels 3-9)