Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		4.0

Black Beauty Blu-ray Movie Review

A Horse Is a Horse

Reviewed by Michael Reuben June 27, 2014

Black Beauty was the eighth adaptation (if you count TV and animated versions) of English author Anna Sewell's beloved classic published in 1877. It was also the directorial debut of screenwriter Caroline Thompson, who co-wrote Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas for Tim Burton and helped turn The Addams Family into a film. Thompson also adapted The Secret Garden for the highly regarded 1993 film adaptation directed by Agnieszka Holland. Released through Warner Bros. Family Entertainment, the film flopped in theaters during the summer of 1994, despite favorable reviews. The timing of the release no doubt hurt its prospects at the box office. A small, intimate film, Black Beauty was overwhelmed in a summer market dominated by blockbuster hits, including The Mask , Forrest Gump, True Lies, The Lion King and Speed. (Try to imagine that for a summer lineup.)

Time has been kind to Thompson's effort, which is elegantly adapted, lovingly made and features a cast full of faces that have since become more familiar. The film's equine star, Docs Keepin Time, went on to further fame both as the lead in a TV series, The Adventures of the Black Stallion, and as the sire of other movie horses, including one who appears in the Ed Harris Western, Appaloosa.

Like Sewell's novel, Thompson's film is episodic, recounting the life of the titular horse from his birth on a farm through many subsequent chapters, some pleasant, some Dickensian in their cruelty and suffering. Black Beauty narrates in the voice of Alan Cumming (The Good Wife), but much of the story is told visually through Black Beauty's reaction to his changing surroundings and the various personalities, both animal and human, he encounters on his journey through life. Although the film is family-friendly, it is not a childish tale, just as Sewell never set out to write a children's book. Her novel was a plea for the humane treatment of horses and, indirectly, of people by each other.

Black Beauty's early life is a happy one, as he is raised on a farm by a loving mother and trained by a kind master and skilled horseman, Farmer Grey (Sean Bean). When fully grown, he is sold to the family of Squire Gordon (Peter Davison) of Britwick Park, an idyllic country estate inhabited by the Squire, his wife and their three children. It is Lady Gordon (Rosalind Ayres) who gives him his name. Under the care of the head groom, John Manly (Jim Carter), Black Beauty enjoys some of his happiest years, except for one unfortunate occasion when Manly's nephew, Joe Green (Andrew Knott), fails to provide proper care, and the horse weakens and becomes gravely ill. (Joe never forgives himself.) Otherwise, Black Beauty thrives and even finds both romance with a chestnut mare named Ginger and friendship with the children's pony, Merrylegs.

Eventually, though, Black Beauty and Ginger must leave the Gordon family, and their next owners are the aristocratic Lord and Lady Wexmire (Peter Cook, in his last film, and Eleanor Bron), who are brutal to both their animals and their servants. Not even the sympathetic groom, Reuben Smith (Alun Armstrong), can protect the spirited horses from the harsh demands of their new owners. Thus begins a long downward slide in which the two romantic partners are eventually separated and Black Beauty experiences many of the harsh possibilities to which a horse may be condemned. These include hauling massive loads of freight, being rented out to an endless line of strangers (some of whom mistreat him) and doing service pulling a taxi carriage in London, where even the kindness of his owner, Jerry (David Thewlis), can't shield him from the harshness of life in the cabbie trade.

Since the film is told as a memoir by a peaceful and contented Black Beauty, a happy ending is assured from the outset. As in Sewell's novel, it occurs through the kind of lucky coincidence that does sometimes happen in life, but never so often as in fiction. Adults may roll their eyes, but children will be delighted. Secretly, so will the adults.

Black Beauty Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Black Beauty was shot by the late Alex Thomson, a versatile British cinematographer who was equally adept at action (Demolition Man), fantasy (Labyrinth), science fiction (Alien 3) and costume drama (Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet). Apparently, he also had the patience to light an entire film with animals as the principal players, and still capture a textured, gorgeously colored image on film. As reproduced on Warner's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray, Black Beauty is finely detailed with the almost tactile quality that is unique to film origination when its transfer to video has been properly handled. Blacks are deep and solid, and colors are richly saturated, with an earth-toned palette of greens and yellows dominating the country scenes and cooler hues of blue, grey and brown taking over in the city. The film grain is extremely fine but does not appear to have been artificially reduced or manipulated. Overall, this is one of the best images I have seen on a Warner catalog title.

The average bitrate is 22.95 Mbps, which is somewhat lower than one would wish to see for a film-originated project, but Warner keeps getting away with it, and I doubt that they will be changing their practices anytime soon. No artifacts appeared on my 72" screen.

Black Beauty Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As far as I have been able to determine, Black Beauty was released to theaters in Dolby Stereo Surround. (The logo at the end of the credits says "digital", but Dolby's logo was in flux during the early days of digital multi-channel formats.) Warner's 1999 DVD offered a two-channel surround mix, which suggests that the Blu-ray's 5.1 track, in lossless DTS-HD MA, is a new remix prepared for this release. Consistent with the mono surround channel of Dolby Surround, the new mix's rear channel is confined to atmospheric expansion, but that element of the soundtrack is crucial, as Black Beauty's story moves through a variety of environments and the film's perspective shifts back and forth between the horse's point of view and that of the humans around him. The expanded presence and discrete encoding also provide clarity and detail to Danny Elfman's agile score, which plays an especially important role here because it so often has to substitute for dialogue in a story where the main character remains mute in all his communications with others, except for the audience (in Alan Cumming's voiceover). The score is reproduced with good fidelity and wide dynamic range so that even the deep bass notes register forcefully.

Black Beauty Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Other than a trailer (480i; 1.77:1, enhanced; 1:21), the disc contains no extras. Warner's 1999 DVD was similarly featureless.

Black Beauty Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It is unfortunate that no extras were created for Black Beauty's DVD release, because a documentary on how the production team managed to get their extensive footage involving animal "actors" would have been fascinating. But when a film dies at the box office, studios are usually unwilling to invest in DVD extras. What we're left with, then, is Thompson's film itself, exquisitely shot, and now brought to Blu-ray in a first-rate presentation. Highly recommended for young and old.