BLACK BEAUTY is admirably faithful to the beloved Anna Sewell children's classic, even if it's a bit disconcerting to hear a quadruped relate the story of its life. Once disbelief is suspended, however, the film becomes an affecting tale of the life and hard times of a horse--not the
usual pastoral frolic, but a riveting saga of friendship, betrayal, and transcendence.
Nurtured by his beloved mother until the age of three, Black Beauty runs with the other colts until he's adopted by the Gordon family at Bertwick, where he thrives despite some initial struggles with domestication. He befriends the pony Merry Legs, pines for the haughty Ginger, and responds to
the tender ministrations of Joe the stable boy (Andrew Knot). Then, when Mistress Gordon (Rosalind Ayres) falls ill, the family is forced to move; Black Beauty and Ginger are sold to the Wexmires.
Cruel and imperious Lady Wexmire (Eleanor Bron) breaks the horses' spirits with traditional but barbaric methods of bridling. Ginger is abused and broken as a race horse, and eventually worked to death by a cruel cab driver. Black Beauty is sold to a rental outfit, where he briefly finds
salvation with a kindly cabbie named Jerry (David Thewlis). When Jerry succumbs to a sickness severe enough to retire him to the country, Black Beauty is sold to a bellicose delivery man. After two years of back-breaking servitude, the horse is rescued by the now-adult Joe (Ian Kelsey) who returns
the long-suffering animal to his beloved pasture.
It's a significant achievement when any drama allows the viewer to walk around in another's shoes; but when the emotional footwear is horseshoes, the achievement of audience identification becomes all the more remarkable. While never suggesting that horses feel in the same way human beings do,
the film forces us to accept that they do feel. It paints a convincing portrait of their response to kindness and their forbearance in the face of man's inhumanity to animals. BLACK BEAUTY is not some benign Disney movie about abandoned animals narrating picturesque adventures in the wild; indeed,
it's surprisingly astringent for a film aimed at kids. Sensitively directed, lovingly produced, and well acted, this equine biopic provides satisfying entertainment for adults as well as children. (Violence.) leave a comment
