Movie · 1979 · Family, Adventure · 1h 58m · G · English
Curator score: 7.0/10 (27.7K ratings)
From the moment he first saw the stallion, he knew it would either destroy him, or carry him where no one had ever been before…
Overview
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.
Ratings
Curator score: 7.0/10
IMDb: 7.4/10
Letterboxd: 3.68/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 90%
Metacritic: 84
TMDB: 7.0/10
Director
Carroll Ballard
Production
United Artists, American Zoetrope
Cast
Kelly Reno, Mickey Rooney, Teri Garr, Clarence Muse, Hoyt Axton, Michael Higgins, Ed McNamara, Doghmi Larbi, Cass-Olé, John Burton, John Buchanan, Kristen Vigard, Fausto Tozzi, John Karlsen, Leopoldo Trieste, Frank Cousins, Donald Hodson, Marne Maitland, Tom Dahlgren, Daniel Henning
Where to watch
Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Curator Review
Verdict
A lyrical, unusually patient family adventure that turns a simple boy-and-horse premise into something close to visual poetry. Its first half is especially strong: nearly wordless, tense, and immersive, with striking imagery and a genuine sense of wonder.
Best for
Viewers who like family films with art-house sensibility
Fans of survival stories and animal-human bonding
People who appreciate beautiful cinematography and minimal dialogue
Parents or older kids looking for a sincere, non-cynical adventure
Skip if
You want fast pacing and constant plot turns
You prefer broad comedy or heavy sentimentality
You need a very literal, logic-driven survival story
You dislike movies that become more conventional in the second half
Overview
The Black Stallion is one of those rare family films that trusts images more than explanation. Its opening stretch, with the shipwreck and island survival, is almost wordless and deeply atmospheric, building a bond between child and horse through gesture, rhythm, and landscape rather than dialogue. The result feels both intimate and mythic.
Worth noting
What makes it endure is the film’s patience. It doesn’t rush the emotional connection, and it gives the natural world room to breathe. The racing material that follows is more familiar, but the movie still carries the memory of that first half’s spellbinding beauty.
Bottom line
This is a children’s adventure with real cinematic ambition: tender, restrained, and visually memorable. It may not be as consistently transcendent after the island section, but its best passages are extraordinary and still feel unusually fresh.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Jake Cole (4.5★) · 146 likes
This almost plays like a Hollywood film gradually congealing out of something much more mystical and amoebic. The first segment, which introduces the characters with minimal dialogue but creates a pervasive mood of unease that explodes as soon as it is established, condenses classic rise-climax-fall structure into 20 minutes and works on its own as a strange, tense short story. Then the rest of the first half is survivalist cinema at its most poetic, wordless yet possessed of slips in… more This almost plays like a Hollywood film gradually congealing out of something much more mystical and amoebic. The first segment, which introduces the characters with minimal dialogue but creates a pervasive mood of unease that explodes as soon as it is established, condenses classic rise-climax-fall structure into 20 minutes and works on its own as a strange, tense short story. Then the rest of the first half is survivalist cinema at its most poetic, wordless yet possessed of slips in… more
Mike D'Angelo (3.5★) · 113 likes
70/100
1979 Me [actually 1980 Me, turns out], who was only two years older than Kelly Reno and enjoyed this film strictly as a rousing boy's adventure, would surely be astonished to see 2016 Me openly weeping at the sheer beauty of the taming scene on the beach. Entire first half is delicately transporting, very close to perfect; one could perhaps quibble about the plausibility of a nine-year-old kid successfully feeding himself on a tiny island for three months, but… more
Leighton Trent (4.5★) · 103 likes
I go through most of my days willfully ignoring the fact that my mother is gone. I don't confront it because there's too much to confront there. The complicated emotions of grief, anger, resentment, relief even that she's gone, that her mental, emotional and physical pains have been erased all jumble together in some bitterly tasting cocktail of grief that sits ever so precariously on my shoulder, just waiting to fall. On days like this, it falls.
I hope there… more
Justin Peterson (5★) · 69 likes
Criterion Collection Spine #765
Your typical story of a boy and his horse gets elevated into a dazzling cinematic masterpiece, through spectacular cinematography and plenty of childhood wonder and heart.
"He's got speed he ain't even tapped yet."
I am always looking for the chance to watch Criterions with my kids, and The Black Stallion totally blew me away, and is by far my new favorite family film in the collection. You just would not expect that a kids book… more
Jeffrey Overstreet (5★) · 63 likes
Beautifully cinematic. Poetic and propulsive. Acted with nuance and tenderness instead of ego (and that includes a surprisingly quiet performance by Mickey Rooney). Never condescends to its viewers, young or old. Edited so perfectly, it is somehow both efficient and contemplative. Devoid of laborious exposition. Packed with iconic images. With the exception of one slightly annoying characterization*, it exists almost outside of time, without aspects of that date when it was made. Alec, played with extraordinary restraint by Kelly Reno,… more Beautifully cinematic. Poetic and propulsive. Acted with nuance and tenderness instead of ego (and that includes a surprisingly quiet performance by Mickey Rooney). Never condescends to its viewers, young or old. Edited so perfectly, it is somehow both efficient and contemplative. Devoid of laborious exposition. Packed with iconic images. With the exception of one slightly annoying characterization*, it exists almost outside of time, without aspects of that date when it was made. Alec, played with extraordinary restraint by Kelly Reno,… more
1988 · Adventure, Drama, Family · 1h 37m · PG · Curator 7.1/10 (37.7K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, Night Flight Plus, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
A largely wordless, visually driven survival tale that treats animals with unusual empathy and seriousness.