'On Swift Horses' is 'sweeping, epic and intimate all at once'

As director Daniel Minahan was setting out to make another feature film, he knew one thing — he wanted to tell a love story, but the kind of love story that felt relevant, familiar and unique to his own experience.

Then he read “On Swift Horses” by Shannon Pufahl, and it instantly spoke to him.

“Sweeping, epic and intimate all at once, it made me feel drunk with love in a world full of possibilities,” Minahan says. “Set against the sprawling backdrop of the American West during the Eisenhower era, it evokes that feeling of young love, impulsive and refusing to be defined.”

“On Swift Horses” had a short theatrical run and is now available for rent or purchase on digital platforms.

According to Sony Pictures Classics, the story follows Muriel, played by Daisy Edgar-Jones, and her husband Lee, played by Will Poulter, who are beginning a bright new life in California when he returns from the Korean War.

But their newfound stability is upended by the arrival of Lee’s charismatic brother, Julius, played by Jacob Elordi, a wayward gambler with a secret past.

A dangerous love triangle quickly forms.

When Julius takes off in search of the young card cheat he’s fallen for, Muriel’s longing for something more propels her into a secret life of her own,gambling on racehorses and exploring a love she never dreamed possible.

Minahan says one of the appealing aspects of directing the film is there are other genres interwoven into the story — the gambling story, the domestic melodrama, the hard-boiled film noir.

“That’s why I set out to subvert those genres and fold them into the everyday lives of our characters. Their emotion always has to come first, before any stylistic tropes. We’re working with archetypes, but through a queer lens,” he says. “When Muriel and Julius meet, they recognize each other immediately, fall in love, and change the direction of each other’s lives. He’s her brother-in-law, but over the course of the story we learn that they are both gamblers and both queer. They can’t be together, yet they parallel, mirror, and yearn for each other.”

In 2020, Minahan and producer Peter Spears secured the rights to Pufahl’s novel. Bryce Kass came onboard as the writer to adapt the screenplay from the novel.

“The narrative moves without a traditional antagonist. A more conventional story would make Muriel’s husband Lee the antagonist. But Lee is a kindhearted, generous man whose single-minded goal is to bring his family together and create a home,” Minahan explains. “The real antagonist in this film comes from within our heroes, Muriel and Julius.”

Minahan thinks of the film as a reimagining of the American dream.

“We’re telling a story of family, home, desire, aspiration and sexual identity set in the fringes of Americana; casinos, racetracks, cruising parks and gay bars,” he explains. “While the story deals with repressed identities and sexual complexities, the thing that appeals to me is that it takes place in a time before there were words or labels for this kind of affection. These characters hide their true selves, watching and imitating and cheating so they can be free to love whom they want. And in hiding themselves, they ultimately connect and find each other.”