Le retour de l'étalon noir

The moderate financial success of the excellent original 'Black Stallion' movie almost guaranteed a sequel considering the series of novels of available source material.

Unfortunately, the absence of Carroll Ballard's unique vision reduce this effort to a by-the-numbers horse-and-boy adventure story which is likely to be of interest to children only. So, we get a welcome return of 'The Black' and Alec Ramsey, but sadly, the magic is mostly gone.

I have only read the first few pages of the book 'The Black Stallion'. It is obvious that the book is a good children's' story and that Mr Farley's legacy has been to encourage reading in several generations of American children. I suspect that this sequel movie, with its more conventional storytelling approach is closer to Mr Farley's works than the first movie, but this does not make for memorable cinema.

Mr Ballard must have turned this one down, because I can't imagine that he was not offered the director's chair given the reception the first movie received. Maybe he didn't like the 'action movie' script? He seems to be very particular about the movies he makes.

Performances here are generally lacklustre and there is one particularly bad hammy supporting actor turn - if you've seen this, you know who I mean.

One part of me can't help but wish that they hadn't bothered with this. It doesn't spoil the original exactly, but the excellence of the first 'Black Stallion' movie so far outshines this effort that you wonder quite what the point of this was, other than a quick cash-in at the box-office.

One point of excellence - Georges Delerue's theme 'Alec and The Black Stallion' is a wonderful soaring score and could have been a welcome addition to the original movie soundtrack.

Your kids will probably enjoy this. Your mind will probably wander...

Greg

"The Black Stallion Returns" is one of my favorite novels, and one of my favorite films. Readers familiar with Walter Farley's saga will note several discrepencies between the books and the films, but that certainly does not detract from the enjoyment to be derived from this film. The cinematography is spectacular, and the Black is as gorgeous as ever, played by horses who capture the true spirit of Farley's legendary stallion. Kelly Reno's skills as an actor have vastly improved in this film, and it is wonderful to see the wide variety of characters that people the Black's world. In many ways, this film is richer than its predecessor ("The Black Stallion"), particularly in its soaring soundtrack that seems to have been custom-composed for the equestrian. Viewers who enjoy this film may also be interested in "The Miracle of the White Stallions," "The Man from Snowy River," and the 1994 production of "Black Beauty."

(1983) The Black Stallion Returns ADVENTURE

After the critical success of "The Black Stallion", the makers thought they could do this again by returning cast and crew to do the follow-up adapted by the same author who wrote the first one called the Black Stallion! The plot has Alec Ramsey (Kelly Reno) who's now older and little taller than he was in the 1979 film, going into another adventure to retrieve his Arabian Stallion, after being taken from him from people claiming that they were the original owners, for the purpose of using him for a race somewhere in the deserts of Casablanca! Not as subtle as the first one, nor as adventurous as one would expect to see after the first one, since they're some far fetched things happening during this kind of an adventure which can sometimes drag, meaning that you'd have to stick it out until the final 20 minutes or so, to make it all worth your while because it avoids cliches! And the final race was just as thrilling as the first movie.

For some unknown reason those whose profession it is to write reviews didn't think highly of this picture, but I found it amazingly well done. Kelly Reno was superb in his portrayal of a teenager who travels from New York all the way to the desert in Morocco in an attempt to retrieve his horse, kidnapped in New York and taken to Morocco. While the story is implausible, the ACTION and the filming and music are superb. See it, if you can.

"The Black Stallion Returns" is shot in 1.85:1, and I saw it in 1.33:1 because of the TV-network cut it down as usual. "The Black Stallion Returns" is a cinema-movie, you should see this on the big screen but after all, this should be done in 2.35:1 instead. This doesn't mean that the movie is bad because of the wrong format, but it would be more powerful in a wider one, as long as the cinematographer would handle it together with the director (I think they would). One of the reasons why it is shot in 1.85:1 might be that the first film was in that format too.

The story is faster and the film is shorter than it could be. After a standard opening, all gets better. And soon Alec, the main character reaches the desert, which is the reason why I wanted to see this movie. This isn't "Lawrence of Arabia" by David Lean, I know that, but the desert scenes are beautiful. And it is because of this scenes I like this movie. Everything started with photos from this film that I saw as a kid. The impression was that the desert was beautiful, or could be shown as beautiful. I should have seen "Lawrence of Arabia" already when I was younger, maybe I would have liked it even more than. For me, "The Black Stallion Returns" could have more and also slower desert scenes than it has, without getting a bit boring.

"The Black Stallion Returns" is actually shot in Morocco, North Africa. The cinematography is not poor, far from. But some of the characters could be better done. The choice of Woody Strode as Meslar was perfect, but he isn't used as good as I hoped. Alan Garfield doesn't amuse as Kurr, a villain, I had hoped that Kurr would be cooler and more menacing. Kelly Reno is a bit weak but at least okay as Alec, but Vincent Spano is cool as the Arabian prince.

The music by Georges Delerue is a bit unequal but at times very good.

The best parts of this movie are without doubts the desert scenes, including the horse race in the end (even if I think it should have been even better).

If you hate horses (why should you?) you can't like this, but otherwise it isn't that hard to enjoy this movie, even if it gets very emotional and describe the relationship between Alec and Black as close as a relation can be, which is booth fascinating and perhaps irritating. Here the direction shows what it really wants to show: emotions, admiration, love, friendship and almost worship from Alec to the Black. In that chase, the director (Robert Dalva) has succeeded.

"The Black Stallion Returns" is first of all a movie for a younger audience than me. That is why I see so many ways how it could have been even better, a more "hard core" movie with a harder, more action-filled tune and an even stronger adventure-feeling in style with perhaps my favorite from this time; "Conan the Barbarian". This would be a movie that was perhaps fitting a wider audience, or at least another.

I saw "The Black Stallion Returns" before I saw 'The Black Stallion', I think that is the best way to enjoy this sequel (it is somehow rather independent from the first one).

(Goofs:) Couldn't Kurr's Uruk men have killed the stallion instead of letting it survive or did they want it to survive? This is not clearly explained.

Rating: 6 of 10.