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DVD Drama
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Written by Abbie Bernstein
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Tuesday, 05 October 2004
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title:
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Black Beauty |
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studio:
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Paramount Home Entertainment |
| MPAA rating: |
G |
| starring: |
Mark Lester, Walter Slezak |
| theaterical release year: |
1971 |
| DVD release year: |
2004 |
| film rating: |
Two-and-a-Half Stars |
| sound/picture rating: |
Three Stars |
| reviewed by: |
Abbie Bernstein |
The 1971 film version of “Black Beauty” – there have been other
versions before and since, including an award-winning TV British TV
series in the ‘70s and Caroline Thompson’s excellent 1994 feature – is
a very curious adaptation of Anna Sewell’s groundbreaking book. First
published in the late 1800s, Sewell’s story about the title horse, told
from the horse’s point of view, was notable for being one of the first
pieces of literature to seriously plead for people to pay attention to
the welfare of domestic animals. While this British film (shot in
Ireland and Spain) certainly doesn’t encourage animal cruelty, it
misses the point of Sewell’s book. The problem is not so much that it
changes around Sewell’s episodic narrative to a great degree, but
rather that it treats the equine hero as a four-legged plot device
rather than as an actual character.
There’s a sense that we may be in trouble from the very beginning, when
Chapter 1’s opening footage of horses frolicking in fields –
beautifully captured by ace cinematographer Chris Menges – unspools
under music that sounds like something that might be played in an
elevator. Things pick up a bit when we meet Joe Evans, played winsomely
as a child by Mark Lester (of “Oliver!” fame), a farmer’s son who is
present for the birth of a lovely black foal. Joe’s father gives Beauty
to him, but their farmland is owned by a squire whose rapacious son
takes possession of everything. Fortunately for Black Beauty, the
squire’s son proves his own undoing before too long. Some of Beauty’s
subsequent owners include an Irish traveler, a European circus troupe,
a general’s daughter, a cavalry officer and a vicious collier before
Fate steps in.
Where director James Hill and screenwriter Wolf Mankowitz make some odd
choices is to become preoccupied in the dramas plaguing the humans in
Beauty’s life, so that we wind up with a fair amount of ‘70s-style
melodrama that won’t hold the attention of youngsters and is rather
antiquated and stylized for us grown-ups. The movie does adhere to the
novel’s tacit observations that people who behave badly towards animals
tend to also be lousy toward their fellow humans.
Given the film’s 33-year-old age, the print is in very good condition –
the color is a bit faded in places but is mostly still very pretty and
extremely clean. The two-channel mono sound is pleasingly smooth.
1971’s “Black Beauty” isn’t bad – it’s just dated and uneven, but it
has its good points. It can best be recommended to kids who are
absolutely crazy about horses and ready for a movie they haven’t seen
yet and/or completionist fans of cinematic treatments of Sewell’s
novel, which still stands the test of time.
| more details |
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sound format:
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English Dolby Digital Two-Channel Mono |
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aspect ratio(s):
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1.85:1, Enhanced for Widescreen TVs |
| special features: |
English Subtitles |
| comments: |
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| reference system |
| DVD player: |
Kenwood DV-403 |
| receiver: |
Kenwood VR-407 |
| main speakers: |
Paradigm Atom |
| center speaker: |
Paradigm CC-170 |
| rear speakers: |
Paradigm ADP-70 |
| subwoofer: |
Paradigm PDR-10 |
| monitor: |
27-inch Toshiba |
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