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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A beautiful horse, a beautiful story, and a beautiful film, 10 Jun 2004
"The Black Stallion" is one of those films that you will stop and watch when you are flipping through channels. Of course this time around I was struck by the scene where young Alec (Kelly Reno) asks old Henry Dailey (Mickey Rooney) if there are any jockeys good enough to ride the Black (Cass-Ole), and he tells the boy about George Woolf, "The Ice Man." I am sure everybody who has seen "Seabiscuit," a strong possibility since we are talking about another great movie about a horse, made the same connection and looked at the match race that the Mystery Horse is added to at the end of this 1979 film in a different light. I was also struck by the irony that Mickey Rooney, who was always the perfect size for a jockey, is in two of the greatest horse movies of all time (the other being "National Velvet" if for some reason you need to be told that bit of cinematic history), and in both he watches some kids ride to glory. Rooney was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for this role and no doubt his performance jogged the memory of the Academy enough that three years later he was given his honorary Oscar for his lifetime achievement in films.Alce is traveling on a ship with his father (Hoyt Axton) and the wide-eyed boy tacks in the exotic passengers, the high-stakes poker game his father spends all his time playing, and, most of all, the wild and beautiful black horse in the cargo hold. The boy has been sneaking the horse sugar cubes and when the ship is sunk by a storm, the horse rescues Alex and the two end up on lonely beach. There Alex, with all the time in the world, tames the horse and rides him up and down the shore, his arms flung wild in the joy of racing throw the sand and water. When the boy and his black stallion are rescued, they return home, and Alec meet Henry, a former trainer, who soon realizes what the boy already knows. This horse is something special and so is this movie. Most every one agrees that this is a beautiful film, and a lot of the credit goes to director Carroll Ballard (who also made "Fly Away Home") and cinematographer Caleb Deschanel (who, surprisingly, was not nominated for an Oscar for his work here but has been since then for "The Right Stuff," "The Natural," "Fly Away Home," and "The Patriot"). But I have to wonder how much of the credit also goes to Melissa Mathison & Jeanne Rosenberg and William D. Wittliff (I love how they do writing credits in films) who adapted Walter Farley's novel. Maybe they are not the ones who stripped a lot of the dialogue away, but whoever did contributed to the powerful effect this film has on viewers because there are so many key scenes where you do not have to listen to words and can just let your eyes feast on the images. The boy racing his horse along the shore, watching the starting point on the race track at night in the rain why waiting for the Black to complete a lap, and, of course, the big match race at the end, where thundering down the home stretch the boy, the horse, and the viewer are literally transported back to the beach where they became one. My pet theory remains, that most people truly fall in love with one horse in their lifetime. For some it is a horse they actually own and get to ride, and for others it is a real racing horse. For me it has always been Secretariat, a love born watching Big Red blow away the field on the back stretch in winning the final leg of the Triple Crown. But for others that horse can appear on the silver screen and whether we are talking the Black Stallion or the Pie from "National Velvet," or even the latest entry in the field, Seabiscuit, there remains for each of us that one special horse.
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