Movie Review: The Horse Boy
Michel O. Scott Documentary About Isaacson Family and Autistic Son
Jun 1, 2009
Is autism actually a disease, or merely another state of being? That's the baffling question at the heart of Michel Orion Scott's documentary The Horse Boy (previously called Over the Hills and Far Away), that shows a family's quest for a cure for their autistic child, and finding a cure for themselves.
Narrated by journalist/activist Rupert Isaacson, it takes the viewer inside a family as they "do something crazy": travel halfway around the world to get help for their child. It's a passionate look at one family's journey, and the questions at the heart of a mysterious disease.
The Horse Boy: Michel Orion Scott Documents Rupert Isaacson and Family's Cure for Autism
In 2004, Isaacson and his wife Kristin received horrifying news: their only child, two-year-old Rowan, was autistic. Their charming blue-eyed boy had disappeared, replaced with a child who acted obsessively, lived in his own little world, and often screamed uncontrollably for hours on end. It was a nightmare situation that tested both parents to the breaking point.
However, Rupert noticed that his son had a strange fixation with animals, and he was a lot calmer around them. Even more surprising was that animals often acted submissively around Rowan, especially a neighbor's quarter-horse mare named Betsy.
When Rowan's symptoms slowed following a healing session with some San Bushmen shamans, Rupert wondered if a combination of horses and native medicine might bring about a cure for his son. After doing some research, he decided the answer lay in Mongolia, where horses were still a favoured form of transport, and shamanism was the state religion.
One of the central motifs of The Horse Boy is the Isaacsons' relationship with their son. In scene after scene, the viewer sees Rupert and Kristin going through hell as they try to deal with Rowan's tantrums and inability to control his bowels. Their love for each other is obvious, and their anguish over their son's pain is real.
Rupert is the wide-eyed idealist, believing that somewhere in the desert hills of Mongolia there is a cure for his child. Kristin is more skeptical: she suspects it may be all snake oil but she's so desperate to help her son that she's willing to go along with it.
Autism: Cure or Gift?
A film like 1988's Rain Man only showed one side of autism, and never introduced the disturbing question at the heart of The Horse Boy: is it a disease or a gift? Gosta, an old shaman with the Reindeer People, tells the parents that Rowan could potentially be a shaman himself.
Rowan's strange affinity with animals leads to some spectacular scenes. Otherwise skittish goats and horses are docile and calm around the boy, letting him do things with them that others would be unable to do.
Part of The Horse Boy's story arc is the sea change in how the Isaacsons look at autism. At the beginning, it's a never-ending horror show as they have to deal with an increasingly uncommunicative, withdrawn, constantly tantruming child. Later on however, Rupert says, "Rowan sees the world differently from other people, and that's a large part of his charm."
As Temple Grandin PhD, professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University, says in the film, "I'm autistic and I wouldn't have it any other way."
The Final Analysis
This film operates on multiple levels. In its strictest form, it's a heart-wrenching documentary showing one family's struggle to cope with a mysterious and debilitating illness, and their quest for a cure. However, three-quarters of the way through, it suddenly changes into something other: a question of whether our Western medical system has lost something, that it's more important to understand the potential of what autistic people can offer society, rather than rush to condemn them as incurably sick.
The Horse Boy gets an 8/10.
Fun Fact: for more information about the film, Rowan Isaacson and the Horse Boy Foundation, go to this site.
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