SYNOPSIS

Alec Ramsey (Kelly Reno), an 11-year-old American boy of the 1940s, is traveling with his father (Hoyt Axton) on the steamer Drake off the coast of North Africa and becomes fascinated by another passenger - a fiery black stallion owned by an unfriendly Arab (Dogmi Larbi). When the ship sinks in a storm, Alec and the horse are the only survivors. They are swept into the sea and onto an uninhabited island, where the boy doggedly attempts to befriend and tame "the Black." He eventually succeeds, and a deep bond is formed between the two as they share an idyllic and exultant life on the island. After they are rescued, Alec assumes ownership of the horse and takes him home to suburban Flushing, N.Y., where the boy lives with his mother (Teri Garr). He befriends a retired jockey named Henry Dailey (Mickey Rooney), and the two of them train the Black to compete in a championship race.

Director: Carroll Ballard
Producers: Francis Ford Coppola, Fred Roos, Tom Sternberg
Screenplay: Melissa Mathison, Jeanne Rosenberg, William D. Wittliff, from the novel by Walter Farley
Editing: Robert Dalva
Art Directors: Aurelio Crugnola, Earl Preston
Music: Carmine Coppola
Cast: Kelly Reno (Alec Ramsey), Mickey Rooney (Henry Dailey), Teri Garr (Alec's mother), Clarence Muse (Snoe), Hoyt Axton (Alec's father), Michael Higgins (Neville), Ed McNamara (Jake), Dogmi Larbi (Arab)

Why THE BLACK STALLION Is Essential

The horse movie, a long-lived and much-loved movie genre, probably has no more exquisite or engrossing a representative than The Black Stallion. Other leading examples of the voluminous genre also include My Friend Flicka (1943), National Velvet (1944), Thunderhead: Son of Flicka (1945), Seabiscuit (2003), Secretariat (2010) and several versions of Black Beauty - but none of these equines has quite the impact and appeal of "the Black," described by The New York Times as "the most famous fictional horse of the century." One viewer said that in watching the film he felt he "was discovering the emotional sources of mystery and enchantment" - and, indeed, The Black Stallion has a transporting power that can engage a receptive imagination in the way that only the best movies can. With its exceptional cinematography by Caleb Deschanel and the splendidly played interactions between horse and boy, this one of the most beautiful films of all time and a moving celebration of the bonds that can be shared by animals and humans.

By Roger Fristoe