Today’s films geared for children – breakneck, frenetic concoctions filled with special effects, ADHD-inducing cutting and shrill characters – can take a lesson from The Black Stallion, Carroll Ballard’s 1979 masterpiece that focuses more on quiet emotion than bombast. A hit upon its release (grossing nearly $40 million against a $2.7 million budget), The Black Stallion has not aged poorly, a timeless gift for moviegoers of all age.
Lonely children often turn to pets, furry surrogates for a lack of parental involvement. There is a pure joy in the scenes where young Alec (Kelly Reno) rides and embraces the Black (Cass-Olé) as Ballard captures the inexplicable bond that exists between young people and animals. Joy itself isn’t enough to sustain a narrative, however. Luckily The Black Stallion also sports the tropes of a survival flick, a family drama and suspenseful underdog sports story.
Based on Walter Farley’s 1941 novel, The Black Stallion is made up of two distinct halves, both working together to create a complete story. The first section may be the closest example we have to an impressionistic children’s film. We met Alec on the decks of a ship off the coast of North Africa. It’s 1946 and the boy is on a trip with his father (Hoyt Axton), who spends his days below deck gambling with an assortment of characters that looked like they stepped out of Raiders of the Lost Ark rather than interacting with his son. With little else to do, Alec roams the ship, watching the water break against its sides. He becomes intrigued by a wild black stallion that is being restrained by a group of Arab men. Alec tries to investigate but one of the men threatens him.
That evening before bed, Alec and his father look through the latter’s gambling winnings. Amongst a bevy of gold and gems, the father presents his son with a pocketknife and a small statue of a horse. He claims it is a representation of Bucephalus, the magical horse that Alexander the Great saved from his father by being the only person who could ride him. Soon after, the ship catches fire and sinks in a harrowing sequence. Alec and the horse save one another and end up stranded together on deserted island.
In this magical setting, Alec slowly befriends the wild stallion after using the pocketknife to cut away the ropes and saddle that have ensnared him on some rocks. Ballard takes his time, allowing us to fully realize the desolation young Alec feels on the island as he subsists on seaweed and sleeps in a cave. Alec eventually uses the seaweed to attract the stallion. It is one of the cinema’s best sequences where we watch the pair, both skeptical and afraid of one another, slowly gain trust and affection. Against the backdrop of a sunset, Ballard shoots his two leads in profile and eventually the Black allows Alec to ride him, much like Alexander the Great’s magical horse. A sheer elation exists in these scenes as Alec, shirtless, rides the horse along the pristine beaches of the island.
Even though the film’s second half may lack the exotic setting of its first, Ballard weaves the magic of Alec’s everyday hometown into the fabric of his narrative. Back with his mother, Alec is still marked by his experience on the island. He sleeps outside with his horse and spends a lot of time alone. One morning, a garbage man spooks the stallion and the horse runs off. Alec gives chase and eventually meets the film’s third protagonist, Henry Dailey (Mickey Rooney), a former jockey who takes a shine to both boy and his horse. Still reeling from the loss of his father, Alec bonds with Henry and decides to enter the Black in prestigious race (just like Alexander the Great did for his father) as way to honor, and heal from, his dad’s passing. Rooney, already in his sixties, offers a gentle performance, one of the best of his long career. Henry is a weary man, one who once knew success but has allowed time to diminish him. By bolstering up the emotionally wounded boy, Henry is able to also find the part of himself that had been lost for years.
We all know the bond between Alec and the Black is fleeting. Little boys grow up and lose interest in horses. They fall in love with girls and get jobs. Tenderness remains. Kelly Reno went on to star in a lackluster Black Stallion sequel before a traffic accident cut short his acting career. He is now on his third wife, pushing 50 and driving a semi-truck after two decades as a cattle rancher. Cass-Olé enjoyed a decade of celebrity, even making an appearance at the White House during the inauguration of Ronald Reagan. Mickey Rooney lived to the ripe age of 93, dying in 2014 of natural causes. Thanks to the power of film, Reno and Cass-Olé will always be there, riding on in the blissful glory of youth as the stray fingers of the waves touch the shore around them.