What makes it different from others?

What a waste of my time!!!

Dreadfully Boring

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

English author Anna Sewell's 1877 children's book is more-or-less faithfully brought to the screen in this handsome 1971 adaptation starring Mark Lester, a hot property at the time following the success of "Oliver!" Awestruck youngster is incredibly attached to a male colt he names Black Beauty, but when his widower-father's farm is sold, the horse is inexplicably included in the deal (a detail which remains perplexing). Beginning with the tender birthing of a foal, director James Hill takes us to a frenzied hunt in the countryside wherein one rider (a glowering horse-hater) blames his horse for falling over on him and has the animal shot. This episode is followed by another in a similar vein, with the same hot-headed villain smacking Black Beauty for crossing his path on a private road. When the boy's farm is eventually sold, guess who the buyer is? One can easily become exasperated by the rote, formulaic storytelling, populated by too few genuine characters, though perhaps horse-lovers and kids won't mind as much. The cinematography by Chris Menges feasts on footage of stallions leaping, jumping, diving--sometimes in slow motion. It certainly looks good, even if the tale is just junior-league soap opera. ** from ****

A truly sensitive and quite a beautiful lost epic, The film is a biopic of Black Beauty's life, original in the sense that the tale is told of the horse's life seen through his own sad, profound and wizened eyes. Forget about "If walls could talk..." this film makes you wonder "If animals could talk..." and there is no need to wonder here since Black Beauty's story is told with empathy and is a real adventure through many terrains. From Black Beauty being a circus performer to a war hero to a whipped and maltreated work horse...the film shows a rather fateful and often disturbing life of this beautiful and sensitive horse... the cinematography is wonderful, It really does try to present some rugged images of the English countryside, I think that the hunting scenes evoke a sense of cruelty and violence in a subtle manner since the film shows the squire and landowners in an unflattering light. I would have liked to see some scenes played out a little longer but there is a lot to fit in this film and ultimately the film is about Black Beauty's life and not so much the people he is thrown with by fate.

1st watched 11/26/2004 - 2 out of 10(Dir-James Hill): Lazy telling of celebrated novel about the adventures of an almost completely black horse. The adventures are huge, but they are played out very un-magnificently with some scenes being so bad that the movie's almost worthy of turkey status especially during a couple silly love scenes. It all works out in the end with the horse coming back to his starting location with his grown-up original owner but the only good thing this movie does is make you feel bad for the horse. The problem is that at points in this movie even he looks bewildered and fatigued at being a part of this slow-moving fiasco.

This internationally-produced version of the oft-filmed Anna Sewell classic about the adventures and misadventures of a horse that is seperated from its original owners is the best of several films based on the timeless tale. Mark Lester stars as the young boy who longs to be reunited with his beloved horse. The film rarely strays from its source, and I believe this is superior to the 1994 remake.