Separating The Buck From The Bob
The character played by Robert Redford in The Horse Whisperer is based on real-life horse trainer Buck Brannaman. You may be wondering just how "based" on Brannaman the role really is?
What's "true life" and what is just the old Hollywood "bigger than life?"
To set the record straight, CBS.com presents this Movie Reality Check to The Horse Whisperer.
Just so you know, CBS.com got the facts straight from the horse's mouth, the real Buck Brannaman.
The Movie Buck. . . is approached by a strong-willed, self-important, hard-to-please New York-based magazine editor strikingly similar to Tina Brown, editor of The New Yorker.
The Real Buck. . . has never dealt with Brown or a magazine editor per se. However, says Brannaman, " I meet someone like that probably every week."
The Movie Buck. . . uses the line, "I help horses with people problems."
The Real Buck. . . uses the line, "I help horses with people problems." Might this have anything to do with the fact that Brannaman was the movie's technical advisor?
The Movie Buck. . . lives in Montana.
The Real Buck. . . lives in Wyoming. He was, however, living in Montana when he met the novel's author, Nicholas Evans.
The Movie Buck. . . must deal with a horse that has been severely traumatized.
The Real Buck. . . often deals with horses that have been severely traumatized. "I just had two this week that were going to go to the slaughterhouse if I couldn't do any good with them," Brannaman says. "One of them had been flipping over backwards on people. But the last day of the clinic, Lady was loping around the coral and just happy as hell."
The Movie Buck. . . crouches in a field for hours, waiting for a crazed horse to come around.
The Real Buck. . . has done this too. It's a trick to make the horse feel non-threatened. And yet, it's such a movie moment.
The Movie Buck. . . once studied engineering.
The Real Buck. . . once studied accounting.
The Movie Buck. . . looks remarkably like Robert Redford.
The Real Buck. . . has been told by a bunch of journalists that he's a dead ringer for Harrison Ford. However, he notes, "I'm not paid as well as Harrison Ford, that's for damn sure."
The Movie Buck. . . is divorced and lives with his brother and his brother's family.
The Real Buck. . . is on his second marriage and is the father of three daughters. His spuse, a ranching wife, was once a model for Rocky Mountain Jeans.
The Movie Buck. . . has a keen sense of people as well as horses.
The Real Buck. . . does, too. Says Brannaman, "You about have to. Quite often the horse's problems are simply a manifestation of what's going on in the human that has spent the most time with the horse. Sometimes it's about getting the horse to heal. But sometimes it's about getting the human to heal some problems in their life too."
The Movie Buck. . . sits around campfires with other ranchers singing cowboy songs.
The Real Buck. . . well, git along little doggy! The real Buck does, too!
The Movie Buck. . . listens to Yo-Yo Ma.
The Real Buck. . . no, no, does not.
The Movie Buck. . . scolds the aggressive New York editor when her ringing cell phone disrupts horse training.
The Real Buck. . . owns a cell phone.
The Movie Buck. . . has never heard of the famous magazine editor or the major magazine she works for.
The Real Buck. . . has a publicist.
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The Horse Whisperer's Mouth
Written By Rob Medich.
Graphic design by Charles Paek.
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Photo ©Touchstone Pictures. All Rights Reserved