News Bulletin - Australian Animal Studies Group

THE CUP
Review by Sandra Burr
Director: Simon Wincer
Producers: Jan Bladier, David Lee and Simon Wincer
In 2002 Irish racehorse Media Puzzle trained by
Dermot Weld (Brendan Gleeson) won the Melbourne
Cup. At the time he was the only foreign trained horse
to do so. Only days before the running of the Cup,
Jason Oliver (Daniel Macpherson) brother of winning
Melbourne Cup jockey Damien Oliver (Stephen
Curry), died from injuries sustained in a race fall. The
Cup tells the story of Damien Oliver‘s decision to ride
despite his grief and to
dedicate the win to his brother.
The film also stars well known Australian actors Jodi
Gordon, Shaun Micallef, Tom Burlinson and the late
Bill Hunter.
As a well-known story about human loss and recovery, The Cup is okay if a bit unimaginative and
pedestrian. The focus is firmly on the human narratives – the Irish trainer desperate to win the
prestigious race following previously failures, the ambitious privately owned Dubai Godolphin
racing business and, centre stage, the devastated Oliver. While there is a lot of footage of
thoroughbreds, The Cup is certainly not about the horses. They are physically present through
their gleaming coats, thundering hooves and flared nostrils, however the audience never gets to
know them. The horses are wallpaper, background to the human stories, pivotal but never
portrayed as individuals, which perhaps reflects the reality of the Melbourne Cup itself. It is never
really about the horses. It is about the spectacle, the entertainment, the connections, the over-thetop
fashions, the betting plunges and the antics of drunken spectators. Despite being central to the
action, paradoxically, the horses are almost always absent and invisible.
What is striking about The Cup, however, is that while very little attempt is made to personalise the
horses, the film-makers resist the temptation to romanticise them. Horses don‘t neigh at the drop of
a hat, make silly noises, rear and flail their hooves or show the whites of their eyes to demonstrate
unreliable temperaments. Instead the horses gallop, they sweat and breathe hard after fast work
and they are as quiet as horses are in real life. The film makers achieved this degree of
authenticity by using a mix of genuine racing footage with close ups and, from that perspective, I
think The Cup does a fine job. It is not often that you get such a level of unadulterated realism in
any animal film, let alone one with horses. What is perhaps less well known is that Media Puzzle,
who earned over two and a half million dollars in his racing career, broke a leg in 2006 while
competing in a race in England, and was euthanized. I can‘t imagine any film-maker wanting to tell
that story.
http://www.cupmovie.com.au/index.html
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