Horse people exist everywhere. It’s not just in tornado country where 4Hers walk amongst us. Some people really are just born as die hard horse-fanatics. These are the kinds of people who set their alarm clocks for 5:30 a.m. to catch an early morning ride on Lightning Bolt or Bubbles before the sun has come up and fog still covers the ground. They love those quiet mornings; just them and old Bolt, who's lost a step or two over the years, but still manages to bring out the same kick in the rider’s grin every time it sees him.
I was never one of these people. To me, Bolt and Madam Bubbles are not worth losing sleep over just to end up with a sore back side for the rest of the day because of its rough gallops. How does one’s ass ever get used to that? But the fact remains that some people love horses - some even enough to found a rescue shelter for at-risk horses.
Jill Curtis is one such person. She’s becoming well known in the 4H world for her rescue efforts for the horses which are sold cheaply and slaughtered inhumanely so the seller can make a quick buck. She may be common name in the horse community, but Jill Curtis became famous almost overnight about 15 years ago when she started dating legendary silver screen actor Tony Curtis (known to a younger generation mainly as the father of Jamie Lee Curtis, as opposed to the leading man alongside Marilyn Monroe in 1959’s Some Like it Hot).
The Jill & Tony Curtis Story, a documentary, attempts to recreate the past through old footage and interviews to set the stage for the present main event: allowing some screen time for the horse rescue shelter that Jill established. The movie star wife felt she could’ve just been sitting by the pool or passing her days at the salon getting her hair done, but instead Jill wanted something more. The child inside her remembered her days riding horses and when watching Oprah’s talk show one afternoon, she became inspired to open the Shiloh Horse Rescue. Thanks Oprah! The once well-manicured Jill spends her days getting dirt under her nails on the ranch or at auctions, buying horses to save them—letting them pass their days at Shiloh.
The documentary isn’t too bad if you care to experience on film what I’ve just told you, but unfortunately there isn’t much more to it than this. The gist is simply the lot of it. First-time filmmaker Ian Ayres attempts to create a story-arch (which all documentaries absolutely need in order to be appealing to its viewer), but there just isn’t enough material there to make it into anything more than a series of vignettes: Jill buys a horse from an auction, then we spend some time on the ranch, Tony brushes the dirt off a young one, then we spend some time on the ranch, Jill instructs a volunteer on how to fill a water bucket, spend some more time on the ranch.
Time on the ranch for some, like Jill and Tony, is time well spent. The 4H type might be able to overlook the fact that the vignettes disintegrate all semblance of a story line, but for us non-5:30 a.m. risers, the time on the ranch isn’t enough to keep it interesting. Sorry Bubbles, I tried.
DVD Bonus Features
The extra features of The Jill & Tony Curtis Story are basically extensions of the documentary itself. They even use the same interviews and information, just elaborating on areas not covered extensively in the doc such as the story of when Tony and Jill met each other or a featurette on Tony’s artwork (apparently he paints). The extra features aren’t exactly what I’d call “extra.” Except for the music video of the “Jill & Tony Curtis Song.” That sure is something extra.
"The Jill & Tony Curtis Story" is on sale March 10, 2009 and is rated NR. Documentary. Directed by Ian Aryes. Written by Ian Ayres. Starring Jill Curtis, Tony Curtis.
