Review of The Eagle Huntress (2016) by John B — 30 Mar 2018

What a great story. The actors in this movie are superb animal handlers. Watch that girl and her father ride. Notice the way she effortlessly mounts her horse with one hand while controlling a full grown eagle in the other. Wow.

I was certain this was a "docu-drama," re-enacted with actors. Not so. Someone heard that a girl in Kazakhstan was training to be an eagle hunter and documented her attempt. No Hollywood endings here -t hey did not know the outcome in advance. When they show the judges scoring, you are seeing the actual judges as they voted on that day. Their facial expressions, even the dramatic pause waiting for the final judge to lift his score, all are the actual judges on that day, recorded for posterity.