All The King's Horses is a profoundly disturbing movie, not for the reasons the filmmakers intended. It shows a support system of family and clergy that fails miserably at protecting a battered woman. Because this is a Christian movie, this makes them the good guys.
Husband Jack (Grant Goodeve) is a creep. Pure and simple. He doesn't give a hoot about his wife or sons. We have no clue why he even wanted to marry the girl Sandy; his first action is to contemptuously flatten her car tire. Their courtship montage has no chemistry. Flash forward eight years (judging by the apparent age of their oldest son). Jack has become a decent breadwinner yet hasn't matured past an adolescent fixation on motocross. He starts beating up Sandy in front of the kids for being late with dinner.
Sandy is played by Dee Wallace-Stone (the mother in E.T.). Her portrayal of a disillusioned, abused wife who cannot find anyone sympathetic to her plight is touching. Too bad her character is driven not by plausible motivations but by the unbending needs of the plot formula. Her opening voice-over yearns foremost for a good Christian husband. Jack displays not even a pretense of this. How does she overlook this painfully obvious flaw? Because he is fun to play with in a barn full of straw and mud. Sandy is viscerally believable when she and Jack fight, but inexplicable when she must to pretend she loves and cares about him.
The filmmakers do a good job of showing the abuse. Punches and slaps connect. Sandy's black eyes not only look genuine but even fade realistically as days go by. Beatings escalate. Sandy turns to her parents and pastor for help. They urge her to stop being selfish and give Jack another chance. What God has joined man shall not put asunder.
This mindset (which I admittedly don't understand) seems to follow the same logic as the Divine Right of Kings: we obey monarchs because God (not strategic marriages, land grabs, or skill/luck of battlefield generals) put them into power. Similarly, if two people manage to get married, God must have sanctioned it. Whatever happens subsequently has a purpose. Never mind that fallible (sometimes deceptive) men and women are their own matchmakers.
Sandy's existence becomes more nightmarish, Jack never showing the slightest indication he will change. Even Sandy's divorce lawyer stands in her way. We begin to doubt this could end well. But it's a Christian movie, so it somehow must. Will Sandy exact retribution on Jack, thereby becoming the villain? Will Jack kill Sandy, and will she find herself at the Pearly Gates rewarded for never divorcing the bum? Will Jack die on his motorcycle and eliminate such hard choices? Or maybe, just maybe, could Jack undergo a total personality U-turn and accept Jesus? One thing is certain: Sandy cannot correct her mistake, get a divorce and raise her sons happily ever after. Not an option.
