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NEW YORK REVIEW
While fascinated by male bonding, Raymond Carver never explored, to my knowledge, the subject of men having sex with horses, which is the focus of the quasi-documentary Zoo—the title being short for the word zoophilic. In elliptical fashion, the director, Robinson Devor, tells the true story of a man (known as "Mr. Hands") in Washington State who died from a perforated colon after being banged by an Arabian stallion, and of the tight group of zoos who maintained the stable in which he received that fatal thrust. The challenge of writing about the film—which I quite like—is not making juvenile jokes at its expense. That would be out of keeping with Devor's tone, which is arty and imagistic and features disembodied narration (some of it by actors, some by the story's participants). Devor doesn't endorse horse-on-man sex, but he does attempt—with sympathy—to account for the appeal. He evokes a world of rootless men, uncomfortable in relationships with humans, making solemn nocturnal trips to the barn—regarding themselves not as sexual predators but as the truest of animal lovers. While I find their view problematic, I don't see the point of making an anti-horse-fucking film. By all means, let them make their case.
To satisfy your curiosity: Devor does not dramatize the act itself. He shows the men in question trudging around fields, explaining in voice-over that humans are "conditioned to categorizing people," whereas animals are attractive because they're "just not going to do that." (No horse is interviewed to offer an opposing viewpoint.) When you have sex with a horse, you are connecting with another living being on a simpler plane of existence. (No argument.) The issue of zoophilia makes for strange, um, stablefellows. Rush Limbaugh asks his dittoheads, "How can they know if the horse didn't consent? ... If the horse didn't consent, none of this would have happened." The artiness—and the ambient drone—of Zoo becomes oppressive, but it's still a ride like no other. I guess I couldn't suppress the urge to make dumb jokes. Call me a neigh-sayer. —Reviewed by David Edelstein, New York Magazine
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Release Date: 04/25/07 (Future Release)
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