Spirit Untamed Christian Movie Review (2021)

Guidance: Talk Together

This is a warm, energetic family adventure with mild language, comic mishaps, and several peril sequences involving wild riding, a mother’s death in the opening, and a confrontation with horse thieves. Its biggest value for Christian families is not surface content but the chance to talk about courage, family reconciliation, and whether freedom is best understood as self-rule or wise love under good authority.

Why This Guidance Level

This lands in the middle guidance range because the surface content is fairly light, but the story raises worthwhile questions about authority, family wounds, courage, and freedom. Most families will be more concerned with the film’s ideas than with anything graphic on screen, so it works best as a movie that may invite a short follow-up conversation.

Faith & Worldview Perspective

Spirit Untamed celebrates bravery, loyalty, friendship, and reconciliation between a daughter and her father. It also treats wild freedom as a central good, with adults often presented as restrictive and the child’s instincts regularly vindicated. That is not hostile to Christian truth, but it is incomplete. Scripture honors courage and care for creation, yet it also teaches that wisdom grows through loving authority and that true freedom is found in what is good and true, not simply in doing what feels right. Parents may want to discuss how Christian hope in Christ shapes courage with humility and obedience.

Truths Reflected

• Courage and perseverance matter when facing fear.
• Family relationships can be repaired through love, honesty, and presence.

Tensions to Discuss

• The film can frame freedom mainly as resisting limits, which may conflict with a biblical view that freedom flourishes under truth and wise authority.
• A child’s impulses are often treated as more trustworthy than adult guidance, so parents may want to discuss discernment and obedience.

Content & Discernment Markers

Occult & Spiritual Content

• Occult material does not stand out here. The bond between Lucky and Spirit is emotional and symbolic rather than spiritual instruction or supernatural practice.

Sexuality & Relationships

• There is no meaningful sexual content. Relationships stay focused on family, friendship, and trust rather than romance.

Identity Themes

• Lucky pushes against being told, “Proper ladies do not hang out of window ledges,” and resists the polished expectations of her wealthy family. The film treats identity as something discovered by following one’s inner nature and sense of freedom. Parents may want to discuss the difference between self-expression and identity rooted in God’s design.
• Family legacy is emphasized in lines like, “part of being a Prescott is not always having what you want - but doing what’s best for the family.” This creates a useful tension between duty and personal desire.

Violence & Intensity

• The opening includes the loss of Lucky’s mother during a public stunt performance. The death is not graphic, but the crowd’s reaction and Lucky’s cry, “Come back, Mama,” make the moment emotionally weighty for younger viewers.
• Adventure danger runs through the film with risky riding, perilous jumps, and moments where Lucky and Spirit are in real danger. The tone stays family-friendly, but the suspense is stronger than simple slapstick.
• The later conflict with horse thieves includes menacing threats, rough takedowns, characters being tied up, kicking at Lucky and the horses, and an attempt to shoot. Parents may want to prepare sensitive children for a more intense final stretch.

Language & Humour

• Language is very mild, with phrases such as “what the heck,” “crazy,” and “are we insane?” Humor is mostly physical, including a squirrel causing chaos, belching, and a disgust reaction to spit: “He spits. Ugh, yuck.”

Other Content Notes

• Much of the comedy comes from animal and social chaos, including Lucky’s line, “If anyone can pull off a squirrel on his face, it’s Grandpa,” after a public campaign disaster. This keeps the tone light even when family tensions are present.
• Adults sometimes speak with pressure or exasperation, as when Lucky is told to “finish your math lesson” and reminded to do “what’s best for the family.” The film ultimately softens this with reconciliation rather than harshness.

Notable Moments

• Mother’s death: The film opens with a rodeo performance that ends in tragedy, shaping Lucky’s family story and emotional distance from her father.

  “Come back, Mama.”

• Family expectations: Lucky is reminded that family duty may require sacrifice, setting up the story’s tension between obedience and independence.

  “part of being a Prescott is not always having what you want - but doing what’s best for the family.”

• Proper lady pressure: Aunt Cora voices social expectations that Lucky rejects, reinforcing the film’s theme of resisting confinement.

  “Proper ladies do not hang out of window ledges.”

Discussion Prompts

• Courage and fear: What is the difference between being brave and being reckless? When did Lucky show courage, and when did she ignore wisdom?
  • Biblical guidance: Scripture calls us to be strong and courageous, but courage is meant to rest in God’s presence and wisdom, not just in our feelings.
  • Scripture: Joshua 1:9, Proverbs 14:16
• Freedom and authority: Why does Lucky resist adult rules so often? Can rules ever protect something good instead of just limiting us?
  • Biblical guidance: Jesus Christ shows that true freedom is not doing whatever we want, but living in truth. Godly authority can be a gift when it is loving and wise.
  • Scripture: John 8:31-32, Ephesians 6:1-3
• Family wounds and reconciliation: How did grief affect Lucky and her father? What helped their relationship begin to heal?
  • Biblical guidance: The Bible calls families toward compassion, patience, and honest love. Healing often begins when people move toward each other instead of staying distant.
  • Scripture: Colossians 3:12-14, Ephesians 4:32
• Identity and belonging: Lucky wants to be herself, but what should shape who we are most deeply?
  • Biblical guidance: Our deepest identity is not found in family pressure or personal impulse, but in being made by God and, for believers, belonging to Christ.
  • Scripture: Psalm 139:13-14, 2 Corinthians 5:17