A beautiful horse, a beautiful story, and a beautiful film, 10 Jun 2004

By	Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews

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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