L'étalon d'argent

Unlike the other reviewers (it appears), I came to this movie after a long love affair with the original story*. I borrowed 'The Silver Brumby' off of a friends mother as a child, and read it six times through before handing it back. It is one of those stories that just captures the heart and the imagination, and is truly an Australian classic.

I was 12yo when the movie was released. Now, 11 years and many viewings later, I feel a little melancholy that while they did a wonderful job, they may have just missed the mark in some aspects. The subplot of Elyne Mitchell and her daughter Indi was never in the book, and I do feel it was ultimately unnecessary and more often than not disrupted the movies flow. The 'Man' was portrayed as to hard, almost possessed. True he was fairly obsessed by Thowra, but he also greatly respected him, and the bush in general. I also missed Storm, Thowra's bay half brother, who was such a large part in the story and a personal favourite of mine. It was bordering on being a bit sugary at times as well. On the other hand some scenes were just about perfect, like the pages of the book come to life before my eyes, and for that I'm very thankful. The soundtrack also is beautiful, and particularly haunting during the final chase.

There are other small changes that seem unnecessary to me, such as the blending of Golden's owner and 'the man on the black horse' into one person when in the book they were separate people, but I suppose they thought that children would get confused (a common, and often wrong, assumption from my experience) so they strove to simplify it as much as possible. Ultimately I feel that the story was simplified too much, therefore losing some of the depth and power of the original.

Over all the visuals were about perfect, the story surprisingly close to the original for a lot of it (unlike many other book to movie adaptations), the sense of magic and mystery quite well portrayed. You could really feel that the bush was almost a character in it's own right. After 11 years I still thoroughly enjoy watching it (unlike the total travesty of the cartoon series released in the late 90's which was mildly horrendous even by young children's cartoon standards).

As a book to movie adaptation I give it 5 out of 10. As a movie in it's own right, 7 1/2 out of 10.

*I'd urge any child, or adult who still loves a tales full of wonder, joy and excitement, to seek out the source material. There are 6 books in the original series, written from 1958 to 1973. 1. 'The Silver Brumby', 2. 'Silver Brumby's Daughter', 3. 'Silver Brumbies of the South', 4. 'Silver Brumby Kingdom', 5. 'Silver Brumby Whirlwind' and 6. 'Son of the Whirlwind'. There is also 'Moon Filly' which was written between numbers 4 & 5 and ties into the later books. From 1993 onwards she added more to the saga; 'Silver Brumby, Silver Dingo', 'Dancing Brumby', 'Brumbies of the Night', 'Dancing Brumby's Rainbow' and 'The Thousandth Brumby'. I don't think these later books quite match up to the earlier ones, but they are still most enjoyable and it is lovely to read about the later generations. Elyne Mitchell is also the author of many other books for both adults and children. I could not recommend her highly enough.

Before Russell Crowe blew up big time in North America, he did a few peculiar little flicks in his homeland of Australia. A couple rowdy gang stories popped up, and then he appeared in a little seen film called The Silver Stallion, or The Silver Brumby, which means horse in down-under-talk. Horse flicks are a dime a dozen and can go either way, usually pinning their focus on a target audience of adolescent viewers. This one is more of a visual tone poem than any sort of grand planned narrative, letting the horses do most of the emoting and character work, with the humans showing up now and again to provide their side of the story. An Australian mother (Caroline Goodall) tells her daughter (Amiel Daemien) tales of the prince of the brumbies, a member of a feral tribe of horses who has been separated from his heard and must find a way back. A relentless outback Man (Crowe) is dead set on both capturing and taming the silver Brumby, a quest which leads him to the very precipice of desperation. The horse traverses mountains, plains and many acres of beautiful northern Australian countryside to reunite with his clan. The scenes with just horses are amazing when one considers just how tough it must have been to coherently get them all together and have them interact according to the shots which the filmmakers needed to get. Quite the achievement indeed. The cinematography is pure misty magic, with both animal and nature alike providing some truly unforgettable images on screen. Crowe is excellent, with a wild glint in his eye, quite committed to the character. There's an overarching and altogether mythic tone to this film that always left me in awe when I saw it as a youngster. One gets the sense of true lore unfolding in front of us, the camera and script creating a piece of celluloid that's purely entrenched in Australian storytelling, bringing it alive in the most visually impressive way possible. Very much worth your time, if you can track down a copy.

I usually have pretty low expectations for "children's movies" not to mention animal adventures. This film turned out to be a fabulous surprise in every way. Sure, I came to it solely to finish out my search for Russell Crowe films; but I came away extremely moved by both the story, the breathtaking visuals of Australia and the lack of heavyhandedness so usually present in these films. This film provided a mesmerizing, compelling film experience. Oh yeah...Russell looks absolutely gorgeous..... Try it...you'll be glad you did.

I absolutely loved the movie. It was a very enjoyable and moving film to watch after the hectic pace of Christmas . The idea and the entire story was quite captivating to me, I didn't even want to stop to get a glass of water. Excellent job on all fronts. Way to go folks. The scenery and the sound track was wonderful , very believable for sure. Watched this movie with a friend and she too was very taken with the whole story line. Really makes a person want to believe in humanity and the better treatment of all of God's creatures. I also thought the voice used in the telling of the story of this movie made it very endearing and drew you into the story very much so. This film will definitely be recommended to all of my friends as a good family movie.

I truly wish that this movie would have been shown in theatres in the US instead of going directly to video. The visuals were absolutely stunning, especially the scenes of the brumbies galloping freely.

The basic premise of the story about the Man's obsession for the Silver Brumby was excellent. The medium of the mother relating the story to her daughter was also handled well, but some of the other scenes with the mother and daughter distracted from the flow of the film. Especially the scenes with the kangaroo. To me they seemed disjointed as if they were just thrown in hodgepodge.

Overall I loved the movie and will watch it again for the Australian scenery and horse scenes.