Ao Passar do Vendaval

This film tugs at the heartstrings with its memorable music, beautiful and talented animals, and compelling history. Though it opens like a war movie with tankers and soldiers filling the screen, it soon shifts into a moving story about the historic preservation of the famous Lippizaner stallions during the Second World War. This is family-friendly fare and safe for elementary school-age children (approx. third grade and above), to watch and enjoy. Those who love horses will be in awe of the impressive, precise performances these intelligent stallions present. Indeed, this film has so stayed with me since childhood, I leapt at the opportunity to see the Lippizaner stallions of today perform in real-life several years ago. They still "dance" to the same famous song! :)

It was very interesting and moving to learn about the events, while it is a Disney movie with expected artistic license type dialogues and side stories such as romance and dinner scenes etc., and not a 100% historic "documentary" it is highly accurate and a google search does find there really was a riding school In Budapest that was destroyed.

Just think, that the entire act of saving the historic school building and the horses came down to just one or two men's decisions, and that had circumstances been ever so slightly different than it happened- we could very well now be reading books and articles about a historic riding school in Vienna that was completely destroyed and the horses wiped out, and be seeing only pictures of what it once looked like!

Key things just happened to come into play to save both in the face of almost impossible odds!

The actibg was great, the whole film was well doneand considering it was filmed less than 20 years after the war is amazing!

The horses are the ONLY reason to watch this otherwise pathetic movie. The American soldiers and their incredibly STUPID comments and jokes are really cringe-worthy!!!

Despite a rather slow start, this film is absolutely classic Disney and well worth the time spent. Everyone should know the story of the Lipizzaner stallions and Col. Podhajsky, the man who risked everything to save them. The stallion's flight from Vienna at the tail end of WWII, and the fact that General Patton and the 3rd Army were heavily involved in their rescue, is exciting stuff and has achieved almost legendary proportions. It's to the film's credit that the viewer eventually gets wrapped up in the Colonel's crusade, and begins to feel a sense of wonder as random chance and pure luck conspire to save the Lipizzaner breed.

I would not have put Robert Taylor in the lead role of Col. Podhajsky, though. As he grew older he got stone-like in his acting, and this is one of his more granite-faced performances. Luckily for us they also cast Curt Jurgens, who plays a good Nazi for once. He is the standout in this production (human standout, that is; the horses are the real stars). He gives a bravura performance as a German General caught up in the atrocities of war with no idea how he could have ever gone along with the Nazis as long as he has. His eyes seem to bleed pain, and he gives the film a welcome dose of humanity as well as the viewpoint of a person who normally follows orders but who has had enough of doing what he doesn't believe in. Lilli Palmer plays the Colonel's wife, and she is more than adequate to the role.

Eddie Albert is used mostly for comic relief as a horse trainer, even singing a Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman song for us; fortunately he's good no matter what he does. And, an extremely young James Franciscus is an Army Major who plays a big role in interesting Patton in the horses, and also in liberating the mares and foals from a Russian onslaught in Czechoslovakia (and also a huge lot of American GI's being held prisoner in the same place); his 1000-watt smile is a welcome addition.

Bottom line, this is a wonderful film for the entire family, if you can get the kids to sit still through the slow beginning; the older they are the easier it will be. It's a film about a little-publicized event in WWII, and shows how the two sides worked side-by-side to save a treasured piece of Viennese history. The horses are gorgeous, and we don't see near enough of them, which is the only real detriment to this fine film about the marvelous White Stallions of Vienna and the Spanish Riding School.

Bearing in mind the box-office appeal of Austria as depicted in 'Sissi', 'The von Trapp Family' and his own studio's 'Almost Angels', Uncle Walt Disney, acknowledged king of the feel good/family movie, must have felt he was on to a winner with this one but the film fared badly both critically and commercially.

Capably directed by Arthur Hiller in his only film for Disney, it is loosely based upon the memoirs of Alois Podhajsky, Olympic medallist, one of the greatest dressage riders of all time and director of Vienna's Spanish Riding School whose single-mindedness and determination in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds secured the survival and future breeding of the famed Lippizan breed whilst maintaining the glorious tradition of the haute école that had been established in the Renaissance.

Nebraskan Robert Taylor, back on the big screen after a spell in television, would seem an odd choice to play Podhajsky and is obviously cast with a view to North American distribution but his appealing personality and undoubted star quality enable him to carry it off. He also has the great good fortune to be playing opposite the wondrous Lili Palmer who enriches every film in which she appears and who provides a perfect balance.

Mention must be made of Curt Jurgens who once again plays the role that suits him to a tee, that of the good German who happens to be a Nazi. As cultured General Tellheim his melancholic monologue at the piano whilst playing 'forbidden' Jewish composer Mendelssohn is one of the film's highlights. Great support as always from Eddie Albert and as a bonus the classy Brigitte Horney is perfectly cast as an Austrian aristocrat. Charles Regnier is the dyed-in-the wool 'I am only obeying orders' Nazi, the refugees are portrayed as thieves and scavengers and apart from the one-dimensional General Patton of John Larch, most of the American soldiers are good natured hicks.

The final scene of the performing Lippizaners in the arena of the Spanish Riding School after ten years in exile is of course magnificent, with Taylor, Palmer, Horney and James Franciscus looking not a day older than they did in 1945!

There are those who proudly declare that they have no interest in equine activity and they have my deepest sympathy whilst those of us who have seen these noble creatures in action owe Podhajsky an immeasurable debt.