The Black Stallion (1979)
Directed by Carroll Ballard
While traveling with his father, young Alec becomes fascinated by a mysterious Arabian stallion that is brought on board and stabled in the ship he is sailing on. When it tragically sinks both he and the horse survive only to be stranded on a deserted island. He befriends it, so when finally rescued both return to his home where they soon meet Henry Dailey, a once successful trainer. Together they begin training the horse to race against the fastest ones in the world.
13 connections found
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13 connections, in both directions
What critics compared The Black Stallion to
But in order to figure out why I liked the film without loving it, I went back to one of my favorite human/animal adventure films, Carroll Ballard's exquisite "The Black Stallion."
Stories of human-animal bonds are most powerful when, like The Black Stallion or How to Train Your Dragon, they let the animal act like an animal, free of anthropomorphizing cuteness.
As a boy-and-his-animal tale, the director creates an inter-species relationship that is reminiscent of The Black Stallion ; Richard Parker becomes a fully-developed character in his own right, and the developing bond with his owner is extraordinarily compelling because of it.
It’s “Life of Pi” without the effects but just as thrillingly pieced together.
The human/dragon scenario is reminiscent of both the delicate human/animal alliance in such films as The Black Stallion (1979) and the illicit romance of Romeo & Juliet (although here it is definitely a bromance).
Taken from a purely cinematic standpoint, The Passion of the Christ is a visually impressive piece, shot by the outstanding cinematographer Caleb Deschanel, whose lush work on 1979's The Black Stallion still remains one of the most resplendent examples of modern cinematography.
Shot by Caleb Deschanel (The Black Stallion, The Right Stuff), The Passion of the Christ opens on an impossibly blue, moonlit night in the Garden of Gethsemane, where a terrified, sweat-drenched Jesus prays to his Father to save him, moments before being seized by temple guards sent out by the high priest Caiaphas (Mattia Sbragia).
He directed maybe the most evocative live-action kids movie since The Black Stallion (1979), A Little Princess (1995), and his failed modern 1998 Great Expectations (set in Florida and New York's SoHo) was a worthy stab at re-energizing a classic.
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Weaving together an animal-rights message as well as cautionary warnings about corporate greed, the movie becomes an awkward hybrid blending old-fashioned movies like "Babe" or "The Black Stallion" with the surrealism of Terry Gilliam's "Brazil."
The filmmaker gazes at her quiet, stoic characters the way, say, Carroll Ballard looked at a shipwrecked boy and horse in “The Black Stallion.”
Influences here range from Ken Loach’s 1969 gem Kes, Carroll Ballard’s 1979 classic The Black Stallion, François Truffaut’s timeless 1959 stunner The 400 Blows, John Boorman’s graceful 1987 drama Hope and Glory and Andrea Arnold’s 2009 marvel Fish Tank.
The movie would be unwatchable if it were not filmed so well (the cinematographer is Caleb Deschanel, who also shot The Black Stallion and The Right Stuff) and if its cast were not so stellar.
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Maybe he relied too much on the artistry of cinematographer Caleb Deschanel (The Black Stallion, The Right Stuff, The Patriot, The Passion of the Christ) and by Joe Kraemer’s thumping score, which, during helicopter shots of the crime scene, explodes like God’s farts over Pittsburgh.
As examples of fantasy filmmaking, as opposed to relics of worship, the "Harry Potter" movies do not, except in snatches, have the lyrical wonderfulness and visionary power that I associate with the finest examples of childhood imaginings on film – the animated films of Hayao Miyazaki (" Spirited Away "), for example, or "The Black Stallion" or "The Red Balloon" or Alfonso Cuarón 's "A Little Princess."