The Black Stallion

Movie Review
Eng 102

THE BLACK STALLION

This movie, The Black Stallion, is one of the most wholesome family , and action packed movie, that will be enjoyed by anyone who love heart felt movies. It has love, courage, desperation, abandonment, and friendship, along with the bond between a child and a powerful beast. It is rare to have such an array of emotions with a movie like The Black Stallion, that triggers so many feeling, and you wish that some of this could happen to you. The rush of befriending a beautiful horse as wild as the wind, but yet a creator that is, also, fearful of trying to survive. There has been several movies that share the same type of genre, which include The Horse Whisperer, Wind Dancer, and Seabiscuit. All these movies have great story lines that every family usually feels what the ending will be, but, there are some that don’t have a good ending, like Phar Lap. A great movie of a famous racehorse, but ending in a tragic death of the horse by poision. If you didn’t know the history of Phar Lap, then the ending would have surprisingly sadden most viewers.

The Black Stallion is directed by Carroll Ballard, and the writers are Melissa Mathison, Jeanne Rosenberg and William D. Wittliff (screenplay). The novel was written by Walter Farley. The main characters are Kelly Reno as Alec Ramsey, Mickey Rooney as Henry Dailey, and Teri Garr as Alec’s Mother. This movie was released on October 17, 1979, with the genre in mind for adventure, family, and sports enthusiast.

This movie is about Alec who is traveling with his father on a ship heading back to the America’s. While Alec is exploring the ship he comes upon a group of Arabic men and this beautiful black. Alec is amazed by this horse as he watches. That evening, while Alec and his father are sleeping, a terrible storm is taking down the ship. Alec sees his father, along with other people, getting in the way of an explosion, and knew his father was dead. He hears the sound of the black horse from behind him. He opens the door of the holding room and the horse charges out and jumps overboard. The ship rocks and Alec falls overboard as well, yelling and scared, he watches the ship sink. He see the black horse swimming in panic, as well, and as the horse comes closer to Alec, he grabs the dangling rope that is connected to the stallion.

Alec awakes on a desert island, confused and drained, he explores to see where he is. Then he sees the stallion in the distance tangled in rocks by the ropes, trying to get up but can not. Alec goes over and untangles the ropes and the stallion bolts away as Alec runs after him. Soon, Alec tries to befriend the stallion by feeding him fresh greens he finds on the desert island. They create a bond so strong and they do not leave each others side. Alec named the stallion Black.

While Alec is gathering food, he sees a ship come in and men coming on the island. Alec gets their attention and he is saved by the fishermen. They see the black stallion as they put Alec in the boat, and Alec is yelling for Black As Alec calls him the stallion runs into the water and starts to swim toward Alec, and the fishermen know they have to help the stallion. They pull him up with their fishing nets and save the horse.

Back home he keeps Black in his backyard, until he escapes when the gate is opened. Alec searches the countryside and finds Black in a barn of an old man, Henry Dailey. Henry said he could keep Black there so he can have more freedom then living in the city. Alec realizes that Henry was a trainer back in his youth and asks if he can help train Black to race. After long hard work, they have created a strong, fast racing horse.

They enter him in the Belmont race, against the two fastest horses in the states. Alec being his jockey, they get off to a terrible start, and trail last. Then Alec remembers the best moments with Black on the island and releases the reins and lets Black run like he always did. Speed, grace and heart, Black takes the lead and finishes first.

Knowing that Black would finish, just by the way the story was taking you, there was always that rush of “on the edge of your seat” feeling. No matter how much of the race you watch, you are still pushing yourself, feeling the need to finish first.

Changes

I changed the beginning of the review an added more in depth detail about the genre. Comparing it with other similar films that have some of the same emotional effects that we look for in a movie. I, also, added a film that does not have a happy ending that you would not expect would happen. I changed some words and restructured some sentences to stay within the assignment sheet.