Black Beauty (1971)

Very Cool!!!

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

English author Anna Sewell's 1877 children's book is more-or-less faithfully brought to the screen in this handsome 1971 adaptation starring Mark Lester, a hot property at the time following the success of "Oliver!" Awestruck youngster is incredibly attached to a male colt he names Black Beauty, but when his widower-father's farm is sold, the horse is inexplicably included in the deal (a detail which remains perplexing). Beginning with the tender birthing of a foal, director James Hill takes us to a frenzied hunt in the countryside wherein one rider (a glowering horse-hater) blames his horse for falling over on him and has the animal shot. This episode is followed by another in a similar vein, with the same hot-headed villain smacking Black Beauty for crossing his path on a private road. When the boy's farm is eventually sold, guess who the buyer is? One can easily become exasperated by the rote, formulaic storytelling, populated by too few genuine characters, though perhaps horse-lovers and kids won't mind as much. The cinematography by Chris Menges feasts on footage of stallions leaping, jumping, diving--sometimes in slow motion. It certainly looks good, even if the tale is just junior-league soap opera. ** from ****

Why oh why did they decided to throw away the classic story and come up with their own version? It feels to me they just stole the title and thought whoever wrote the script can do better than Anna Sewell. My daughter just read the classic story and wanted to watch a movie version. What disappointment we had when it was apparent that we weren't watching 'Black Beauty' but a bastardized story with less than good acting. All through the movie we both wondered aloud whether we had ordered a wrong movie by mistake. Almost all of the characters in the book are absent and the most egregious omission is that the horse is not the narrator. The top billed Mark Lester was less than himself and only in the movie briefly. The other characters are mostly one dimensional and their stories are only glossed over. Of course this is not a miniseries and probably couldn't delve into all of their stories but some story transitions leave me wanting something more. ********* Spoiler ********** I thought I heard the soldier who briefly owns Black Beauty volunteered to go to India but in the battle scene it is clear that the people he is fighting are not Indians. Oh, and how did this movie got a 'G' rating with such violent battle scene? Someone should have warned me and my eight year old daughter. Viewers who want to watch a movie based on the book should be warned that this one ain't so.

This is an excellent little horsey film with Mark Lester, the angel-faced victim of Bill Sykes (Oliver!), now playing the farm boy on what looks like Exmoor or somewhere similar (perhaps Scotland). His nemesis this time is the terrible, sadistic Sam Greene (Patrick Mower) whose mission is to wreak havoc on everyone on his newly-inherited estate following the death of his altruistic father.Really, it's a bit of a naturalist film, with the actual birth of Black Beauty himself shown and lots of delightful shots of rural, country life in England amidst classical English landscape. There really is some fine cinematography with sweeping panoramic landscapes, etc. The Pro-Hunting enthusiasts in England would now love this film and there are tons of shots of bands of red tunic huntsmen all over the place, with packs of dogs and stuff in hot pursuit.However, the editing is clumsy and contrived and the director seems to want to create some sort of pseudo-art film, with lots of slow motion shots of hunting accompanied by a cheesy, amateurish soundtrack.

This internationally-produced version of the oft-filmed Anna Sewell classic about the adventures and misadventures of a horse that is seperated from its original owners is the best of several films based on the timeless tale. Mark Lester stars as the young boy who longs to be reunited with his beloved horse. The film rarely strays from its source, and I believe this is superior to the 1994 remake.