The name "Equus" immediately brings one thing to mind: sex with a horse. Yes, that is in the famously nude play, but there's so much more to it than that. Not only that but there's a lot more to the 1977 film adaptation starring Peter Firth. That's a very naked Peter Firth, by the way. Let's deep dive into today's Throwback Thursday: Equus.
The play debuted into the world in 1973 and pretty much immediately made headlines. Peter Shaffer wrote this story about a young man turned on by horses after hearing a true crime story about a 17-year-old who was abusing horses in a small English town. He made up this narrative around that crime story, but it's pretty wild to me that the story he made up involves being horny for horses. But go off, Shaffer!
The good news is that in stage productions of this play, the horses are played by hot muscular men who wear horse masks. So it's always a treat to watch! The movie went with real live horses though.
The film adaptation from director Sidney Lumet stars Peter Firth as a 17-year-old boy named Alan Strang who works in the stables. He has a pretty awful habit of blinding the horses. A psychiatrist played by Richard Burton hears about this and starts to see the boy. He realizes that this kid is really obsessed with horses...like, sexually.
Yes, this stable boy enjoys riding the horses naked until he orgasms. He also cuddles with them afterward which is kind of sweet. Everything changes for the young man when he meets a human woman that he likes, but he struggles to get hard for her. Probably because she's not a horse. Sucks for her honestly.
Speaking of suck, we'd love to suck off Peter who shows his peter in multiple scenes. His cock is REALLY thick both when he presents himself to a mighty horse and when he strips naked in a barn in front of his human female lover.
The reviews were not kind to this adaptation, but the film did get three Oscar nominations. That being said Richard Burton's performance was pretty universally praised. Critics just did not dig Lumet's hyper-realistic portrayals of, um, the stuff going on with the horses.
Honestly, the real vs. not real horse argument was all that people really focused on when the film came out. By then, the content of the play had already been dealt with. Now critics and audiences were upset about Lumet's artistic choices, feeling that the play's use of super-hot beefcakes was better. I'm inclined to agree with that!
You can be the judge and watch a scene for yourself here:
