In the new world, peace reigns. But, at the cost of human emotions. People are no longer allowed to have feelings. But then, one day the law enforcer decides to break the law for a change?

A film adaptation of the play by Peter Shaffer, Equus stars Richard Burton as Martin Dysart, a psychiatrist who takes on an unusual case: a young stable boy (Peter Firth) who, in frenzy, has blinded six horses. Their sessions reveal that the boy has a quasi-religious fetish for horses and he rides them in the dead of night, experiencing an ecstasy unlike anything Dysart has ever known. Dysart begins to question: Is the pursuit of normalcy worth the loss of individual passions?

Equus features a lot of hokum--its therapy scenes are absurd crescendos of revelation and insights--but its central question has substance, the direction is energetic, and the performances are powerful; Burton, handsome and haggard, brings a complex self-loathing to his role. It also features Jenny Agutter and Joan Plowright. --Bret Fetzer