What do the horses mean in the movie Michael Clayton?

Answer 1

horses can mean freedom or sex. i haven't seen the movie, but those are two common symbolic uses for horses.

Answer 2

Michael Clayton Book

Answer 3

When Clayton is in Arthur's apartment after he has been murdered, be quickly leafs through the book 'Realm and Conquest'. This is the book that serves as his son's moral compass, and the book which Arthur discusses with Clayton's son on the phone. It happens very quickly but when Clayton is looking though the book he briefly glimpses at the heading of a new chapter a picture of 3 horses standing on a hill.

Clayton must have at some subconscious level registered this picture, and this is what causes him to stop in the car. He sees the 3 horses on the hilltop and that scene exactly replicates the picture in 'Realm and Conquest'. He is intrigued and drawn to that hilltop and the horses because it has been foreshadowed by the book. He senses it has some deeper, mysterious significance for him. By getting out of the car his life is subsequently saved as he escapes the bomb. So that picture, and the real horses, in effect save his life.

This is a sign - from the gods or fate - call it what you will, that he has a choice. He can choose to do the right thing, take the right path, as the book reveals. He can decide on the morally correct course of action or not. It is his ethical existential ephinany.

This event causes him to decide to do the morally right thing and reveal ' U North' for the evil they are, and expose their corrupt and murdering practices to the authorities by setting them up as in the final scene in the film.

That's my interpretation of the meaning of the '3 horses on the hill' scene and its connection to the book 'Realm and Conquest'. This book supplies the moral context underlying the plot and explains the denouement of the film.

Answer 4

If you look carefully at the scene where Michael Clayton is thumbing through the book that his son recommended (the one the crazy lawyer highlighted), there is a picture of several horses standing together. Seeing the horses in the field reminded him of the book.