The Black Stallion feels like an extraordinary high-quality film school PhD project. I found it hard to categorize.
The cinematography, lighting, and editing were beautiful -- more like a moving painting than a film. Production values were superb all the way around; you feel as though the director knows exactly what he is doing with every scene.
Unfortunately, I find it hard to stare a single painting for an hour.
Between the beginning of the shipwreck and the point where Mickey Rooney enters the film, there is almost an hour with no dialog. I was relieved when Alec's mother said her one line, but she spoke to the horse. This might work as a book, because narration uses language. But a film that runs an hour with no dialog or character development is interminably boring, unless you are watching just for the visuals.
Then there is the weak story you can discern between the frames: Alec loses his father, almost drowns, survives a shipwreck alone. He must be traumatized. Yet he manages to break a ferocious stallion with sugar cubes, leaves, and a knife to cut ropes when required in what must be only a few days. Not to mention that he and the horse would be dead, since we never see any fresh water on the island. Oh yeah, and his skin would peel off in the blistering sun since he abandons clothes in typical Hollywood desert-island fashion, written by someone who has never spent two days in the wilderness. And he does not even talk to the horse.
He gets home, and still never talks. Even 70 years ago he would have ended up in an institution. And why doesn't his mother talk to him.
If you like the karaoke (no speech) version of films, you will enjoy this. But if you want a conventional story with sane characters, skip it. We got fed up and switched off in the middle, so we missed Mickey Rooney's performance (always worthwhile).
The cinematography, lighting, and editing were beautiful -- more like a moving painting than a film. Production values were superb all the way around; you feel as though the director knows exactly what he is doing with every scene.
Unfortunately, I find it hard to stare a single painting for an hour.
Between the beginning of the shipwreck and the point where Mickey Rooney enters the film, there is almost an hour with no dialog. I was relieved when Alec's mother said her one line, but she spoke to the horse. This might work as a book, because narration uses language. But a film that runs an hour with no dialog or character development is interminably boring, unless you are watching just for the visuals.
Then there is the weak story you can discern between the frames: Alec loses his father, almost drowns, survives a shipwreck alone. He must be traumatized. Yet he manages to break a ferocious stallion with sugar cubes, leaves, and a knife to cut ropes when required in what must be only a few days. Not to mention that he and the horse would be dead, since we never see any fresh water on the island. Oh yeah, and his skin would peel off in the blistering sun since he abandons clothes in typical Hollywood desert-island fashion, written by someone who has never spent two days in the wilderness. And he does not even talk to the horse.
He gets home, and still never talks. Even 70 years ago he would have ended up in an institution. And why doesn't his mother talk to him.
If you like the karaoke (no speech) version of films, you will enjoy this. But if you want a conventional story with sane characters, skip it. We got fed up and switched off in the middle, so we missed Mickey Rooney's performance (always worthwhile).