Director Daniel Minahan and producer Peter Spears had been looking for a project to collaborate on when they both received Shannon Pufahl’s novel “On Swift Horses” independently. Excited about the novel’s complex characters and how it could translate to screen, the two men knew this was the one.
Back in theaters for Pride month after a limited release earlier this year, “On Swift Horses” brings together A-list rising talent. Set in 1956, Muriel (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and her husband Lee (Will Poulter) are anxious for a new life together after Lee comes home from the Korean War. But when Lee’s gambler brother Julius (Jacob Elordi) shows up, their plans go slightly awry.
Minahan described Pufahl’s novel as interior, moving back and forth in time and dealing with a lot of remembrance. Bryce Kass came aboard to handle the screenplay.
“We set out to give these characters a voice, make their story active and give it a beginning, middle and end,” Minahan said. “It’s a very impressionistic novel, very beautiful and evocative. We tried to honor that, but give it a forward drive.”
“On Swift Horses” starts off as what seems like a love triangle. Muriel forms an alliance with Julius and, according to Minahan, there’s a certain expectation that she is going to fall in love with him. As the story unfolds, however, Julius falls for Henry (Diego Calva), a guy he works with in a casino. Muriel begins going to horse races and checking out the queer bars in San Diego, doing some experimenting of her own.
“It’s a bit of a journey of self discovery for Muriel from her life as a waitress and conventional housewife to someone who has a secret double life of betting on horses and is checking out the queer scene,” the director said.
Minahan set out to show the sense of danger these characters were potentially facing. The McCarthy era has passed, but queer people could still find trouble if they were discovered.
“They are living on the fringes, and by pursuing their true natures they are endangering themselves,” Minahan said. “You could be arrested. It’s another 10 – 12 years [before] homosexuality is decriminalized in California.”
Although the time period was more conservative, beat poets, writers and artists had started to rise. Wanting to get his actors familiar with what was going on at the time, Minahan made a package for them of historical information, newsworthy items, popular culture, and movies.
“Both Daisy and Jacob asked me for books to read. The two books that were number one bestsellers were ‘Peyton Place,’ a melodrama made into a soap opera that takes a look at the moral codes and hypocrisies of a small town in America, and the other book was Jack Kerouac’s ‘On the Road,’” Minahan said. “Those books really suited those two characters. There is someone in a conventional marriage and someone who lives on the fringes as a hustler and card shark.”
Much has been made about the film’s final scene. Minahan said he wanted to show a queer love story with a more hopeful ending.
“What sets this love story apart is that it has queer characters in it and they are not victims. That was one of the things that appealed to me,” Minahan said. “It’s the story of two people who really see each other and change the direction of each other’s lives. They have kind of a platonic love for each other.”
Minahan and his team premiered “On Swift Horses” at the Toronto Film Festival in 2024 and then made a deal with Sony Pictures Classics to distribute the film to theaters. It has been an exciting ride for the team.
“I couldn’t imagine a better [distributor] for this,” Minahan said. “They have distributed all of my favorite films from Merchant Ivory to Pedro Almodóvar, so I really feel it’s in good company and capable hands. They take a film like this and feel it has a long tail and a long life. I hope more people will discover it.”
