After most tuckered-out toddlers are lulled to sleep with a bedtime story, their grateful parent quietly slips a well-worn book back onto the shelf. Not so, if you're writer and filmmaker John Fusco. He and his son will soon journey to China, as a bedtime story Fusco created becomes a lavish, big-screen production staring Jackie Chan and Jet Li.
"I was on the set of Hidalgo, and over lunch, a producer asked how my son was," Fusco recalls. "I told him our bedtime story about an American boy who was afraid of bullies and found solace in Kung Fu movies. The boy discovered an ancient staff in a Chinatown pawn shop, and it transported him to China, where he met characters from Chinese literature and legend. By the end of lunch, we'd signed a movie deal."
The gifted storyteller says he draws inspiration from his well of childhood interests. "Whether it's the American West, Native American history and culture, Blues music, or Chinese philosophy and martial arts - it's like a rain barrel that's filled with those early passions. I don't know how to write anything if I'm not passionate about it, because I've tried. You can fake it, but you won't have the muse, and your story won't have the life and the juice that makes it jump off the page and work as a film."
Fusco's passions have resulted in such box-office favorites as Hidalgo, the story of the great distance rider, Frank Hopkins, and his legendary endurance horse, and the animated hit, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. His interest and involvement with the Lakota Sioux resulted in Thunderheart, with Val Kilmer as an FBI agent with Sioux heritage, sent to investigate a murder on the reservation.
Fusco is also passionate about America's first horses; his Vermont farm is a conservancy dedicated to preserving the Colonial Spanish Horse, formerly known as the Spanish Mustang or Indian Pony. Native American tribes developed individual strains within the Colonial Spanish Horse breed; Fusco currently runs a special, nonprofit program to preserve the nearly extinct Choctaw Indian Pony.
"Some people love an ocean view - I love to look out and see a Cheyenne Indian Pony," he says. "I see living history. The same with the Choctaw - I look at them and know, 'These are the horses that walked the Trail of Tears.' "
Read on to meet Trailblazer John Fusco: writer, filmmaker, family man, and ardent preservationist of America's first horses.
MyHorse: Have horses always been a part of your life and dreams?
Fusco: When you use the words "Connecticut" and "horses" together, it usually conjures up images of manicured fields. I grew up on the other side of the tracks in Connecticut, where my father owned an auto salvage yard, and our "horses" tended to be used Buicks. We lived in rural New England, down a dirt road through woodlands - real Last of the Mohicans country.
The Indians of Connecticut were the Pequot, and as a child, I was interested in that culture, always looking for arrowheads. There was an old apple orchard nearby, where a farmer kept some horses. While immersed in my Native American fantasies, I'd sneak a ride on one. It was hard to mount him from a standstill, because he wanted no part of it, so I'd position him under trees and mount from above. I was fortunate to have a Huck Finn childhood.
MyHorse: Did you always want to be a writer?
Fusco: As far back as I can remember, writing is what made me happiest. I started making original 8mm films when I was 10. Every week, my mother would buy me 50 feet of 8mm film. I used the family camera and recruited kids to act in my productions. I was determined to be a writer and director of movies.
At 16, I surrendered temporarily to outside "voices of reason" that said, "Give it up!" But I rebelled by channeling the energy into writing lyrics for local bands, singing, and playing the keyboard. I dropped out of high school to travel with bands in the South, playing original, blues-inspired rock and roll.
Eventually, I went back to what I really wanted to do: writing and making films. I went home, got my GED, and was accepted into New York University Film School. At 24, I sold my first student screenplay, which was made into a movie, and I never looked back.
MyHorse: Tell us about your first horse.
Fusco: My early interest in the eastern woodlands and Native America grew into a fascination with the Plains horse culture, specifically the Lakota Sioux. Horses were a big part of that world, but I didn't have an interest in owning a horse until I was on the set of my second movie, Young Guns.
Jack Palance came out of retirement to play the bad guy in that movie - a major coup. On the first day of shooting, he was supposed to ride to his mark and deliver a massive monologue that I'd written, perhaps overwritten. He was having a difficult time, because his horse was a handful. The wranglers found another young Paint Horse, a pro that had already appeared in Silverado and Three Amigos. His name was Chato, and, when they put Jack on him, he hit the mark every time.
In between camera setups, my wife rode Chato. I'll never forget the day she rode up to me, and said, "This horse is amazing. You must ride him." I did, and the crew had to radio to get me back to the set. If I had a dream horse from childhood, he was it.
When the movie wrapped, I bought him. Chato was my first horse, and he taught me to ride. He was in the sequel to Young Guns, carrying a naked woman out of a burning brothel. He was very cool about it - talk about bombproof! Today, at 32, he shares a pasture at my farm with other retired equine movie stars. There'll never be another like Chato - he is that one in a million.
MyHorse: How did a young man from Connecticut become involved with the Lakota Sioux?
Fusco: I met a Hopi woman on the movie set of Young Guns, and told her about a movie idea that was haunting me: I wanted to write something based on true incidents that occurred on the Pine Ridge Reservation of South Dakota during the 1970s, dealing with the FBI occupation and injustice.
I told the woman that the music of Buddy Red Bow, a contemporary singer/songwriter, inspired me, and learned that Buddy was one of her best friends! A few weeks later, she called and said, "Buddy's in Taos - why don't you drive up?" I did, and we became fast friends.
He loved my first movie, a blues film called Crossroads. He said the subject I wanted to tackle was "heavy," and invited me to go to the reservation and meet Grandpa Fools Crow, the highest ranking ceremonial chief. I'd heard the name when I was a kid. That's how well-known - and old - he was. I was excited to feel this path opening.
Buddy took me to see Chief Fools Crow. We smoked the pipe, which in the traditional way is more that just the symbol of peace. They say there are no lies with the pipe. The pipe is the mediator, and when you pass the pipe back and forth, you must speak your heart.
With Buddy translating, I told Chief Fools Crow my intentions. He spent lots of time with me, even in silence. Eventually, he told Buddy to help me. They took me to the sweat lodge to purify, then to meet people. That became a five-year experience, in which I returned to them for ceremony, to learn the language, and to learn from Grandpa Fools Crow. After spending years as a kid dreaming of this people and this landscape, it was an incredible experience.
