Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron/Fridge


 * After re-watching Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron recently, I suddenly realised something about the 'All-Horses-Should-Be-Free' message, especially when you conside just who is telling the story - Spirit! As a wild horse, it's made clear in the film that prior to meeting the humans at the campsite, he has had no experience them before, and would have known nothing about domesticated horses. And so in Spirit's eyes (a wild horse) the best place for any horse is to be is therefore free and in the wild. Another thing that also struck me is the way the humans are portrayed, stemming from how they in turn treated Spirit. At the Fort, Spirit was tied without food or water, had his mane cut off, was almost branded, and was almost forcibly broken in, whilst at the Railroad he was forced to heft a Locomotive engine over a hill, going towards his homeland. Compare those to the Lakota camp, where Spirit was pretty much free to wander around (albeit tied to Rain to prevent him from leaving), eating apples and doing whatever the heck he wanted. It makes sense for him then portray them in a better light than any of the other humans! - KingSonnDeeDoo
 * Consider what happened to all of those domesticated horses that Spirit "freed:" they likely have no knowledge of how to survive in the wild, and the ones released from the locomotive are still in chains as they run into a freaking forest fire..
 * They were actually running away from the forest fire, which started all the way back where they came from. (The train slid down the mountain). They're domesticated horses; they'll end up back at the place they left, their owners will feed them and patch them up, and when a replacement locomotive comes they'll pull it over the mountain and then have a nice rest before being shipped back East to a comfortable stable. Humans are only Bastards if you're a wild animal who wants to stay that way.