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The Turin Horse Movie Review

The Turin Horse is a 2011 Hungarian drama film directed by Bela Tarr and starring Janos Derszi. It’s a very boring, frustrating viewing experience.

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“Theirs is the moment…

nature, infinite silence“

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A monumental windstorm and an abused horse’s refusal to work or eat signals the beginning of the end for a poor farmer and his daughter. Judging by this excellent premise, you’d expect a powerful drama about an important issue, but you’d be sorely mistaken expecting that as the end result is so tiresome, dull and simply repetitive in every way.

Bela Tarr is a frustrating director, very much in the vein of Antonioni. His movies are not only painfully slow, long and thus tedious, but also fueled by this very antagonistic, misanthropic and plain nihilistic in its outlook. Friedrich Nietzsche was the main influence on this film and it shows. Though not seen in the flesh, his nihilistic spirit is felt throughout this overly dark, way too grim movie. I just did not agree with the director’s line of thinking here.

The Turin Horse is meticulous in its audio-visuals. There is no denying that. In fact, this is the only reason to see this painfully boring movie as otherwise it would be a total waste of time. The black-and-white cinematography is stunning as it perfectly accompanies its period piece setting. Some of the imagery here is genuinely arresting. The takes are low in number, but they are all made to count, and you can just revel in the amazing artistry on its many shots.

The score is the main highlight for me personally. It is so eerie and so incredibly dark that it also immaculately accompanies its grim storyline and tone. It’s just phenomenal and the entire atmosphere is stupendous thanks in no small part to that incredible sound of the storm.

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However, the pacing is overly slow and the movie is repetitive in its many takes. What it wants to say, it could have said with a much shorter runtime. This way, it felt as if the director was running in circles, never wanting to arrive at a proper destination. The lack of dialogue bothered me, but even more so the didacticism of the monologues that were there in certain scenes. The whole film is quite overrated to me.

Bela Tarr makes films that are difficult to get invested in. The Turin Horse is slow, overlong and quite repetitive. What he was trying to say could and should have been achieved with a significantly reduced runtime. Also, I did not like what he had to say either as the movie’s nihilistic, misanthropic outlook on life is too one-sided and grim. The audio-visuals, though, are impeccable. The photography is simply stunning in its artistry while the very menacing, brilliant score immaculately accompanies the movie’s very dark tone. Thus, I appreciated it artistically speaking, but I was bored endlessly watching it.

My Rating – 3