The Black Stallion

"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…"

1979 1h 58m EN

👍

7.1

SOLID

★7.1TMDB · 344

FamilyAdventure

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

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.

“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…”

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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
Doghmi Larbi
Arab

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Carroll Ballard
Writers: Jeanne Rosenberg, Melissa Mathison, Walter Murch
Languages: Arabic, English, Italian, Portuguese
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $2.7M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $38M — a 14.0× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

47 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 4 languages: Arabic, English, Italian, Portuguese.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "The Black Stallion Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Carroll Ballard, shot by Caleb Deschanel. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Carmine Coppola. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Robert Dalva shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Carroll Ballard directs. Caleb Deschanel behind the camera. Carmine Coppola scores. Robert Dalva cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in Arabic, English, Italian, Portuguese.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $2.7M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Grossed $38M — a 14.0× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
347 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
4Dialogue crosses 4 languages: Arabic, English, Italian, Portuguese.
5Part of the "The Black Stallion Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
6Directed by Carroll Ballard, shot by Caleb Deschanel. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
7Original score by Carmine Coppola. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
8Editor Robert Dalva shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
9Kelly Reno and Mickey Rooney and Teri Garr carry the top of the cast.
10Marketing tagline: "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…".
11IMDB entry: tt0078872 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
12Classified under 14 themes, including "rescue", "poker", "sports", "shipwreck".

The technical file

Cinematography: Caleb Deschanel
Original score: Carmine Coppola
Editing: Robert Dalva
Stunt coordinator: Glenn Randall Jr.
Runtime: 118 min · 1h 58m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $2,700,000
Box office: $37,799,643
Return: 1400% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): G
IMDB: The Black Stallion (1979)

Part of

The Black Stallion Collection

The Black Stallion is a 1979 American adventure film based on the 1941 classic children's novel of the same name by Walter Farley.

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Carroll Ballard

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Wuchak2021-09-10
★ 5/10
Aesthetically pleasing, but dramatically dull A boy befriends a fiery Arabian stallion in the Mediterranean in 1946 and ends up hooking up with an ex-horse racing trainer (Mickey Rooney) back home in the northeast USA. Teri Garr plays the mother. "The Black Stallion" (1979) starts out like Tarzan’s origin, just substituting the horse for the apes, before switching to the typical sports formula (young underdog’s talent is recognized and trained by an over-the-hill mentor). Thankfully, this is not a Disney kiddie flick; the tone is artistic and mature with the same visual/audio wonder of “The Secret Garden” (1993), both movies produced by Francis Ford Coppola. While it’s as aesthetically awesome as “The Secret Garden,” it’s not as dramatically engaging. Teri Garr's role is negligible and Rooney’s character isn’t interesting like, say, Mr. Miyagi in “The Karate Kid” (1984) or even Nick Nolte’s ‘Socrates’ in “Peaceful Warrior” (2006). Either Garr’s part needed beefed up or the scriptwriters should’ve added another character to the mix, like a girl who befriends the boy, but SOMETHING to keep things compelling. As it is, the story is too dull to maintain the interest of most people over 7 years-old. But the stallion is magnificent and I appreciated the relationship between boy & beast, not to mention the excellent post-war era décor and the afore-noted artistic exquisiteness. The film runs 1 hour, 57 minutes, and was shot in Sardinia, Italy (island sequences), and the Toronto area of Canada, with some stuff done in northwest Oregon (Astoria, Gearhart and Nehalem). GRADE: C+

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