This movie is so short that there is not much to say about it. It is a twelve minute look at a lone Canadian cowboy (his only companion is a little, but bossy, dog) corralling a herd of horses and then trying to lasso and saddle one of them. The movie is in black and white and there is no narration, dialogue or even natural sound--just guitar music. If that sounds boring, then you should probably stay away. But personally, I enjoyed it. It is easily found on the Internet and is worth tracking down if you're curious.
2 Reviews
Classic Round-Up
CinePete26 November 2018
Very much part of its period, there is a magisterial "Shane" aura to the cowboy in the opening shots, as he comes over the Alberta terrain and looks down onto the range. He rounds up a band of wild horses and leads them into the Corral, which in turn becomes a kind of combat ring between horse-breaker and wild mustang. Everything goes smoothly, however.
We become readily absorbed into the action. This is "participatory cinema", using hand-held camera and intense close shots, taking the spectator inside the corral with the cowboy. There's a quiet impact in the professionalism of the horse-breaker, and the quick taming of the horses. Filmmaker Colin Low seems to have remarkable good luck in getting just the right shots, with the horses doing all the right things.
We seldom see clearly the cowboy's face as his close-ups tend to be obscured by angle or shadow. In this respect, he becomes an archetype of the Canadian cowboy.,
The strumming of the balladeer on the guitar seems playful, and relaxed in the latter half, giving a quieter feel to the film and suggesting a quick bond between cowboy and horse. The guitar plays a kind of campfire melody, and the lack of any other sound in the film turns Corral into a visual ballad of the Canadian west.
A later American film The Misfits also shows the same kind of Western action - the taming of wild horses - but the tradition has become debased through use of trucks and unethical advantages over panic-induced horses. This 1961 film, with Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe, is director John Huston's protest against the modern round-up. It makes an interesting contrast to Corral, which celebrates the traditional ''romance'' of the cowboy,
We become readily absorbed into the action. This is "participatory cinema", using hand-held camera and intense close shots, taking the spectator inside the corral with the cowboy. There's a quiet impact in the professionalism of the horse-breaker, and the quick taming of the horses. Filmmaker Colin Low seems to have remarkable good luck in getting just the right shots, with the horses doing all the right things.
We seldom see clearly the cowboy's face as his close-ups tend to be obscured by angle or shadow. In this respect, he becomes an archetype of the Canadian cowboy.,
The strumming of the balladeer on the guitar seems playful, and relaxed in the latter half, giving a quieter feel to the film and suggesting a quick bond between cowboy and horse. The guitar plays a kind of campfire melody, and the lack of any other sound in the film turns Corral into a visual ballad of the Canadian west.
A later American film The Misfits also shows the same kind of Western action - the taming of wild horses - but the tradition has become debased through use of trucks and unethical advantages over panic-induced horses. This 1961 film, with Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe, is director John Huston's protest against the modern round-up. It makes an interesting contrast to Corral, which celebrates the traditional ''romance'' of the cowboy,
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