Wild Beauty: Mustang Spirit Of The West – Review

24th May 2023

There are tens of thousands of wild horses in the US, maybe even more and it’s likely that a lot of people don’t even know they exist. Under Richard Nixon’s administration he helped create the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), a team tasked with ensuring the safety of such wildlife,

However, it appears that the BLM have gone too far with their management of these beautiful creatures. Instead, they are euthanising and abusing wild horses and doing so under government approval and their efforts appear to be increasing.

Wild Beauty: Mustang Spirit of The West is a documentary directed, written and narrated by Ashley Avis. A cause which is clearly close to her heart, the documentary lays out every issue surrounding the dwindling wild horse population in the US and details every form of abuse which is making it worse.

Shot against the stunning landscapes of Western America, Avis’s documentary shows the wild horses in their natural habitat and just how calm and peaceful they can be. A documentary which could have manipulated the heartstrings of its viewers, instead Avis’s narration is passionate, but also factual as it explores everything that people are fighting against.

Showing an organisation fuelled by greed, their cruelty is shown in an unflinching manner to highlight their atrocities.

A documentary such as this could have taken the opportunity to leer over the abuse and use graphic images just as much as its visual feast portrays the horses to illicit emotion. Thankfully though, Avis and her team use their investigative journalistic style and not emotion to get behind the wall that the BLM have put up to get to the truth.

The footage they show of what this organisation does is bound to shock an animal loving audience and open their eyes to the torture that the horses are facing. However, the end result doesn’t provoke tears, but anger at how such a thing could be allowed to happen. Every point and counterpoint is carefully thought out in Wild Beauty, ensuring it will become a documentary that will make you think and perhaps even do something to help.

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