Wild Beauty: Mustang Spirit of the West
Written and Directed by Ashley Avis
Unrated
Runtime: 1 hour, 39 minutes
Currently in theaters and on demand

by Ryan Silberstein, Managing Editor, Red Herring

CW: Violence against animals

Wild Beauty: Mustang Spirit of the West is an activism documentary disguised as a nature documentary. That’s not a complaint, as the political football that are wild horses seems to be an issue that most of the general public is completely unaware even exists. If the idea of learning about these animals and seeing some majestic horse footage is the reason to watch the documentary, the rest of it will get the audience riled up and on the side of the horses. It feels very purposeful on the part of director Ashley Avis.

Wild horses are intrinsically linked to North America, originating here a few million years ago before coming extinct. New breeds were introduced by colonizers in the previous half millennium, but the horse belongs to the rugged terrain of the west and the people who lived here long before white people. There’s a good amount of information about horses, particularly wild ones, in the film. The wild horses roam largely on public lands, which are also shared by the cows and sheep owned by ranchers. It should come as no surprise that horses (along with buffalo) have a much smaller disruption toward the natural ecosystem than either cattle or other livestock. 

Avis has an equestrian background, and prior to this directed the Black Beauty adaptation from 2020 that went directly to Disney+. Her passion for the subject matter comes through every scene in the documentary, especially as things take a turn towards investigative journalism. The villain of the film is the Bureau of Land Management, the federal agency specifically in charge of managing the wild horses. The critique leveled by Avis and those interviewed is that the Bureau is, at best, using outdated methods and approaches to managing the wild horses. At worst, they are more beholden to the wealthy ranchers and their lobbyists than they are the horses or their real owners, the American public.

Of course this is a tale of capitalism, money in politics, and power. The wild horses are a perfect symbol of America on every level. The image of them, wild and free as they roam across the varied landscapes of the west, is that idyllic America; the America that is evoked when fighter planes flyover sporting events or Independence Day fireworks. Those things don’t move me as much as this country’s natural beauty, and our mismanagement of it enrages me on a mass scale as much as it does to see individual herds of horses rounded up by reckless helicopter pilots. This is a heartbreaking and often hard to watch documentary, but Avis should be applauded for making a cogent argument and not pulling any punches.