(This review discloses the story and ending)

Zoo opens with gorgeous photography by cinematographer Sean Kirby, a stamp of visual delight and excellence which continues through the film. Luscious landscapes, breathtaking sun-sets over Seattle (USA) and the countryside of Washington State, subtly-lit interiors, all with delicate colouring and classical composition. Landscapes have their horizons on the golden section, the screen proportion feels as well-proportioned as Academy Ratio, slightly stretched to fit the breadth of the scenery. A man in the Pacific North West of America comes from a tunnel into the sunlight. As he sits on the porch of his wooden house in the countryside at night, while his mother cooks in the kitchen, he reflects - the film comes with voice-over speech and narration through most of its length - that the internet has removed the sense of aloneness he previously had - 'the concept of being zoo'. The film cuts between different people and their thoughts. Horse rescuer Jenny Edwards (Jenny Edwards) talks about the work of herself and her husband John Edwards (John Edwards) - they seem ever-so-slightly batty. Mundane country towns are photographed with picturesque warmth. 'We talk over the internet', the first man continues. A man has sent him money to go to Washington State. 'Why am I this way?', he wonders, 'I'm trying to balance religion and being zoo. I always treated my animals as part of my family. They ate before I did. It's just a love of animals. That's what zoophilia is.'

Other zoophiliacs speak their thoughts as they go about their daily activities: truck driver 'The Happy Horseman' as he drives; ranch hand H (Russell Hodgkinson). 'It just happened one day', the first man recalls, 'I didn't know it was zoophilia till I got on the internet. I knew that behaviour wasn't illegal in the State of Washington.' And for the first time in the film, he mentions the man around whom the story revolves - 'Mr Hands, deceased'.

Mr Hands (John Paulsen) lived in Seattle - the action of the film is shown as it happens, but the spoken narration tells the story in retrospect - and worked for the Boeing Corporation as a senior executive. He was a wealthy and good-looking man with a birth-family alive: father (Ken Kreps), mother (Susan M Carr), brother (Richard Carmen). He was friendly with his ex-wife (Malayka Gormally) and devoted to their son (Conor Gormally)

The original narrator is going to Washington State with money sent by Mr Hands to buy a farm in the countryside, and stock it with horses. Stallions, to be exact. He does so, and men with a common interest arrive to stay there: Coyote (Coyote), The Polish Man (Tom Gormally), Bremerton Man (Brad Harrington), Photographer (Karl Holzheimer), Military Man (Andrew Scott McIntyre), Chinese Businessman (James Chu) and others. They drink, play guitar, sing, carouse, and admire the animals. One found fellow enthusiasts while fighting the war against Iraq. The characters who express a view are against that war, which seems a small and interesting point in the film - because many of them could be redneck stereotypes of Republican voters. Nevertheless they watch and enjoy other war movies at the ranch. They're an odd-looking bunch, a couple with a hint of Deliverance hillbillies; others a bit pervy. Mr Hands could be a classic Democrat, middle-class, plays guitar well. 'It took me a year to know his real name', comments the narrator. 'I show them the horses', he continues, edging the film towards the action. 'The horse is the biggest thing on the internet'. He talks about the horses' testicles. One man wears a kilt.

Cop #1 (Michael J Minard) gives testimony to camera, sitting on a stool: 'A man bled to death'. The narrator resumes: 'We knew it was going to happen, but we didn't know when.' A man is dropped off at the local hospital, taken from a car, left in casualty. On TV, Republican Senator Pam Roach speaks out against bestiality. A man runs desperately across a field with buckets of DVDs; some spill on the ground. They're evidence of what's happened. And suddenly, the realisation of what the film is about. And it's not about men buggering horses.

Time for some dimensions, with thanks to Net Doctor, Dancing Horse, and Wikipedia, all at 3 June 08:

'The great majority of men's penises measure between 15cm and 18cm (6-7 inches) when erect', according to http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/sex_relationships/facts/penissize.htm, 'with the average figure being about 16.5cm (6.5 inches) ... when aroused, a woman's vagina usually extends only to a length of about 10cm (4 inches) ... the exceptional man whose erect penis is eight inches long can still make love to any woman, providing he excites her properly and introduces his organ very slowly. If he does this, her vagina will lengthen by 150 or 200 per cent to accommodate him.'

'A stallion's penis is approximately 20 inches (51 cm) long in the relaxed state', according to http://www.dancinghorse.net/ranch/breeding.html. 'During erection the size increases about twofold. The penis is roughly divided into the head, body and glans. The glans, or free end of the penis, is bell shaped particularly during erection and ejaculation.' 'When not erect, the penis is housed within the prepuce, 50 cm long and 2.5 to 6 cm in diameter with the distal end 15 to 20 cm', according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_anatomy. 'When erect, the penis doubles in length and thickness and the glans increases by 3 to 4 times.'

The resulting dimensions are: A large erect human penis is 20cm (8 inches) long, and the vaginal membrane, specifically designed to accommodate the human penis, can stretch to that if care is taken in preparation and entry. A stallion's erect penis is about 100 cm (ie 1 metre; or 40 inches ie 3 foot 4 inches) long; its width is 5 cm (2 inches) to 12 cm (5 inches), wider at the end.

There may be an audible intake of breath with the sudden realisation that Zoo is about horses buggering men. Mr Hands's bottom is accommodating an object five times the length of a man's erect penis and the width of a grapefruit, introduced by, attached to, and controlled by a wild animal. It's briefly shown on DVD. 'He's bleeding to death internally.'

The film continues obliviously. Mr Hands goes round the Space Museum with his son; he strokes the hair of his ex-wife. He's seen setting up his home in Seattle for his ex-wife to come back and live with him - the narrator explains - so he could be closer to his son.

'From an estate point of view, they had these animals that have to be dealt with,' says matter-of-fact Jenny Edwards. The narrator arrives to hand over the animals to her. It's now after Mr Hands's death - by 'estate' she refers to the goods including the horses which he owned - police raids, arrests. 'He struck me as a really creepy child-molester kind of guy', she comments about the narrator. It's a fair description. She and husband John Edwards urge the sodomising stallion into a horse-box when, she says, suddenly this little horse appears out of nowhere and 'gives the stallion a blow job. It was the strangest thing I'd ever seen.'

'Something bad happenened out there' says the narrator; 'Mr Hands made the arrangements to go to the hospital right away.' The narrator drives him there. At first in the car he is conscious, but gradually slips from it, his lips draining colour. In flashback Mr Hands is seen in the night embracing a horse. At hospital the patient is seen to by the Emergency Room Doctor (Bob Fink). The narrator escapes quickly from the hospital, but his number plate is noted leading to his later arrest. The verdict is 'perforation of colon by horse'. Mr Hands's brother is seen shredding paperwork in Mr Hands's apartment. He finds a cast of the penis of a horse called Strut. 'I wanted to walk away from it' Mr Hands's voice recalls. 'I studied Buddhism. You can wish it away, but you have to concentrate.'

There's a debriefing from Coyote towards the end: 'I do miss him a lot'.

And from Jenny Edwards: 'We made the decision to geld him that night' to avoid other men having sex with the animal. In macabre detail she's shown masked-up with vets in surgical gowns castrating the sedated stallion. 'I nearly have a love relationship', she explains, of horses. 'I don't yet know how I feel about that, but I'm right on the edge of being able to understand it'. She's talking about all that has happened. Her voice-over goes with a visual of a young woman riding a horse - a rhythmical rising and falling motion with a strongly (conventional) erotic overtone.

Zoo? What other titles crossed the minds of producers Peggy Case and Alexis Ferris? Tonto's Last Stand? Trigger Comes Again? Midnight Cowboy And The Ring Of Fire? Writers Robinson Devor (who also directs) and Charles Mudede create a story that deliberately teases. The first question is whether it's a spoof. It's made in its own style, a very original film, and there are nods to others in the past. The original of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is perhaps a parallel in that it's told as truth (and Zoo is called a documentary on www.imdb.com) but - as with Zoo - with a cheeky comedy subtext glinting through at every opportunity. Jenny Edwards and John Edwards come across as fairly mad and as odd as all the others, so there are no heroes. The horse-sex bookends to the film - starting with horse on man (bad) and ending with woman on horse (OK) - seem almost impish rather than a pointer to hypocrisy. There's a lot of comedy in the authorities desperately trying to invent a crime to convict someone of - but what? As one politician says on TV comparing the physical size of a man and a horse - it couldn't be without consent. A scene in which a film is played to Mrs & Mr E and the police, supposedly the intercourse of horse and Hands, is absolutely horrifying in content, and very funny in the reactions of the Edwardses. Mrs Edwards's longing looks at the woman on the horse at the end speak without words.

As director, Robinson Devor creates a dreamy, hellish world, in which odd behaviour seems normal. In one way it invites the idea that it's all shockingly perverted. On the other - is it really, in any way, a crime? Who is hurt (apart from Mr Hands, and that's at his own choice)? The horses don't seem bothered, so is it wrong? There are plenty of answers to these questions, depending on the moral viewpoint of the viewer, but the cleverness of the director and writers is to make the questions themselves seem reasonable.

All the film-making elements of Zoo are superb. Paul Matthew Moore's atmospheric and inspired music is a work of art. Editor Joe Shapiro gets exact mood changes and a subtle interweaving of past, present and hindsight voices and viewpoints from a dozen or so people into a form of telling the story which, after a bit of puzzlement, has the mood of - oddly enough - a fairy tale. If the subject-matter wasn't so disturbing it would almost be charming. Special-make-up-effects artist Jennifer Popochock creates awfully convincing injuries, and there's no guessing how Foley artist Paul Matthew Moore simulated these particular footfalls.

An Oscar category in need of invention for Bob Fink - Dr Bob Fink MD - could be Most Versatile Doc. In Zoo, he is stills photographer, actor (Emergency Room Doctor); and off the set he's the film's psychiatric consultant. The consistently graceful photography benefits from TJ Williams Jr's excellence as Steadicam operator; he's also first assistant camera. A couple of gents who may leave this particular film off their vetinary CVs (resumés) are David Emery and James Hopkins, unhappilly credited here as 'animal handlers'. Audio post-production is by Bad Animals, Seattle (honestly). It's only possible to imagine how research co-ordinator Elisa Haradon and researcher Elizabeth Heile went about their work, but they must have got some odd looks in the local library.

Credits Sources: www.imdb.com/title/tt0874423/ at 3 June 08, producers' press kit at 10 October 07, credits on film at 10 October 08.

Cast Credits (alpha order): Richard Carmen - Mr Hands's Brother. Susan M Carr - Mother. James Chu - Chinese Businessman. Coyote - Himself. Jenny Edwards - Herself. John Edwards - Himself. Paul Eenhoorn - Lead Detective. Bob Fink - Emergency Room Doctor. Forest I Fousel - Capital Hill Man. Conor Gormally - Mr. Hand's Son. Malayka Gormally - Mr. Hand's Ex-Wife. Tom Gormally - The Polish Man. Brad Harrington - Bremerton Man. Russell Hodgkinson - H. Karl Holzheimer - Photographer. Ken Kreps - Mr. Hand's Father. Andrew Scott McIntyre - Military Man. Michael J Minard - Cop #1. John Paulsen - Mr. Hands. Ron Carrier. Tom Formally. Robert Padilla. Janine Rose Schweickert. Robert Power. Jessica Aceti. Marjorie Maier. Andy McCone. Bill McQuaid. Don Reid. Patrick Shoe. Patricia Watson. Senator Pam Roach. Horses - Uncredited.

Company & Crew Credits: Director - Robinson Devor. Writers (alpha order): Writer - Robinson Devor. Writer - Charles Mudede. Producers (alpha order): Producer - Peggy Case. Executive Producer - Ben Exworthy. Producer - Alexis Ferris. Executive Producer - Garr Godfrey. Co-Producer - Megan Griffiths. Executive Producer - Daniel Katz. Executive Producer - Randy Manis. Executive Producer - Jeff Sackman. Executive Producer - Mark Urman. Composer of Original Music - Paul Matthew Moore. Cinematographer - Sean Kirby. Film Editor - Joe Shapiro. Production Designer- Jeanne Cavenaugh. Art Direction - Alison Kelly. Set Decoration - Kimberly Diehl. Costume Design - Doris Black. Special Make-up Effects Artist - Jennifer Popochock. Post-Production Superviser - Joe Shapiro. First Assistant Director - Ben Dobyns. First Assistant Director - Megan Griffiths. First Assistant Director - Mischa Jakupcak. First Assistant Director - Rachel Temerlies. Art Department Intern - Angelica Hesse. Sound Effects - Designer Ollie Glatzer. Foley Artist - Paul Matthew Moore. Sound Mixer - Matt Sheldon. Sound Mixer - Vinnie Smith. Still Photographer - Bob Fink. Assistant Camera - Adam Forslund. Key Grip - Bruce Henderson. Key Grip - Ryan Middleton. Gaffer - Sean Porter. First Assistant Camera - TJ Williams Jr. Steadicam Operator - TJ Williams Jr. Assistant Editor - Elisa Haradon. Animal Handler - David Emery. Production Co-ordinator - Rachel Evans. Psychiatric Consultant - Bob Fink MD. Pathology Consultant - Robert Risdall MD. Office Support - Malayka Gormally. Research Co-ordinator - Elisa Haradon. Production Supporter - Elizabeth Heile. Researcher - Elizabeth Heile. Animal Handler - James Hopkins. Production Co-ordinator - Rachel Temerlies. Audio Post-Production - Bad Animals, Seattle. Distributors: Australia DVD - MRA Entertainment Group. UK all media - Revolver Entertainment. Greece all media - Seven Films. USA TV - Sundance Channel. USA DVD, theatrical - ThinkFilm. Non-USA all media, sales - ThinkFilm. USA Release Date - 25 April 2007. UK Release Date - 30 May 2008.

END

John Park

reviewed Wednesday 10 October 07 / National Film Theatre - NFT3 - Press Preview - 10:30

Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2008

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