The Horsemen (1971)

Director:

John Frankenheimer

Writers:

Joseph Kessel (novel)
Dalton Trumbo

Release Date:

11 August 1971 (France)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Drama

Tagline:

A Horse Worth Killing For. A Dream Worth Dying For.

Plot:

In the poor, desolate northern provinces of the mountainous feudal Sunni kingdom of Afghanistan (before the Soviet-engineered republican revolutions)...

Plot Keywords:

Buzkashi | Foreign Language Adaptation | Based On Novel | Independent Film

Cast

Omar Sharif	...	Uraz
Leigh Taylor-Young	...	Zareh
Jack Palance	...	Tursen
David de Keyser	...	Mukhi
Peter Jeffrey	...	Hayatal
Mohammad Shamsi	...	Osman Bey
George Murcell	...	Mizrar
Eric Pohlmann	...	Merchant in Kandahar
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ishaq Bux	...	Amjad Kahn
Carlos Casaravilla	...	Messenger
José Luis Chinchilla	...	Head Syce
Mark Colleano
P. De Quevedo	...	King
Srinanda De
Despo Diamantidou	...	Uljan (as Despo)
Vernon Dobtcheff	...	Zam Hajji
Saeed Jaffrey	...	District Chief
Leon Lissek	...	Chikana Proprietor
Ricardo Palacios	...	Ghulam
Salmaan Peerzada	...	Salih (as Salmaan Peer)
Milton Reid	...	Aqqul
Aziz Resham	...	Bacha to Ghulam
John Ruddock	...	Scribe
Vida St. Romaine	...	Gypsy Woman
Sy Temple	...	Quadir
Jesús Tordesillas	...	Little Governor
Tom Tryon
Barbara Wain	...	Nurse
Alan Webb	...	Gardi Gay
Florencio Amarilla	...	Arabian Man (uncredited)

Directed by
John Frankenheimer

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Joseph Kessel		novel
Dalton Trumbo

Produced by
John Frankenheimer	....	producer
Edward Lewis	....	producer

Original Music by
Georges Delerue

Cinematography by
André Domage
James Wong Howe
Claude Renoir

Film Editing by
Harold F. Kress

Production Design by
Pierre-Louis Thévenet		(as Pierre Thévenet)

Art Direction by
Gil Parrondo

Costume Design by
Jacqueline Moreau

Makeup Department
Giuliano Laurenti	....	makeup artist

Special Effects by
Alex Weldon	....	special effects

Stunts
Chuck Hayward	....	stunt coordinator
Pierre Pakamoff	....	stunts
Miguel Pedregosa	....	stunt performer

Camera and Electrical Department
Wladimir Ivanov	....	assistant camera
Robert Willoughby	....	special still photographer

Casting Department
Selway Baker	....	casting assistant

Other crew
Corky Randall	....	animal trainer

Production Companies

• Columbia Pictures Corporation
• Frankenheimer-Lewis Productions

Distributors

• Columbia Pictures (1971) (USA) (theatrical)
• Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (1974) (USA) (TV)
• RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video (1987) (USA) (VHS) (pan and scan)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• Columbia (1971) (France) (theatrical)
• Cinemax (2013) (Hungary) (TV)
• Videosonic Arts (1986) (Greece) (VHS)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

109 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:GP (original rating) | USA:PG | Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

Afghanistan

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

The film began shooting using 65mm negative (Super Panavision), but during production, Columbia went through a change in management. The budgets for this and another 65mm production, "MacKenna's Gold," were cut, and both films were forced to switch over to 35mm anamorphic Panavision. However, both were released in 70mm, with the later-shot sections blown up. In later years, the mix-and-match formats made restoration of the films more time-consuming and expensive than if they'd been shot entirely in 65mm, and they were preserved in 35mm only.

Quotes:

District Chief:What demon has possessed you to mock these good people with that piece of dog-bait?

Better-- much better than average

Omar Sharif and Jack Palance may be the only names in this cast that most will recognize but the story based on an Afghan tale, set in Afghanistan before the Russian invasion, is a classic tale which lays out a great deal of Afghan culture during the period before the great disruption by the West. Afghanistan returned to the public eye after the post-911 invasion to depose the Taliban but the state of knowledge about these marvelous independent people who fought the British Empire to a standstill, still remains obscure. The game of buzgashi, a kind of polo for Weidman, was the core for many of the tribesmen. Its importance as an institution marking the status of tribes and individuals has no real counterpart in Western culture, and this is a tale of intrigue and self-learning, framed in a cultural setting we still have yet to understand.