7.9 | / 10 |
Users | 3.9 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 3.9 |
When a shipwreck leaves young Alec and the black stallion, a wild Arabian, stranded on a desolate island, the two share a frightening adventure of survival that forges a lasting bond of friendship between them. Upon their rescue, Alec and the magnificent horse continue their adventures when they join forces with ex-jockey and horse trainer Henry Dailey.
Starring: Kelly Reno, Mickey Rooney, Teri Garr, Clarence Muse, Hoyt AxtonSport | 100% |
Coming of age | 96% |
Family | 89% |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono
French: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
Italian: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
German: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
Spanish: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
Spanish DD=Latin
English SDH, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Greek, Indonesian, Korean, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Thai
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Director Carroll Ballard was a UCLA classmate of Francis Ford Coppola, whose Zoetrope Studios produced Ballard's debut feature The Black Stallion, with Coppola prominently listed as executive producer. Adapted from the classic children's novel by Walter Farley, The Black Stallion premiered in 1979, the same year as another Zoetrope production, Coppola's own Apocalypse Now. Though made for a fraction of the cost, Ballard's film has proven to be as durable as his patron's, in large part because of Ballard's unique ability to evoke a sense of elemental wonder through seemingly casual and uncomposed images. Study them carefully, though, and it becomes clear that there's nothing casual about them. Ballard and his cinematographer, Caleb Deschanel (who would reunite for Fly Away Home), compose deliberately, and the film's editor, Robert Dalva (Captain America: The First Avenger), was nominated for an Oscar for the unobtrusive precision with which he assembled their shots. The result was acclaimed at the time and has remained a family classic ever since.
Because MGM's screener for The Black Stallion only recently arrived, I had already heard tales of a "botched" transfer from users who acquired retail copies. MGM's catalog output is well known for being erratic, even when a title is promoted with great fanfare, with results ranging from the exceptional (e.g., the remastered Robocop) to the disappointing (such as the controversial release of The Great Escape). Titles released "under the radar" have been similarly unpredictable; the remastered Terminator looked terrific, but some of the studio's "90th Anniversary" reissues have featured the same disappointing transfers and encodes issued in the early days of Blu-ray (e.g., Bull Durham). MGM's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray for The Black Stallion looks reasonably good for a catalog title on which a basic effort was expended to bring the film to hi-def, but not the extensive investment of money, time and resources that, in a world without practical limits, would be expended on every transfer for Blu-ray. The elements appear to be in good shape. Black levels and detail are generally more than acceptable, although much of the early part of the film (on the ship and in the water) and some later scenes (e.g., the downpour at the track where Neville first sees The Black) are exceptionally dark and always have been. By contrast, the scenes on the island, at Alec's home and at Dailey's farm are bright enough and have sufficient contrast to reveal a wealth of detail. Perhaps a better scan and more refined tweaking at the digital workstation could reveal additional layers of information, but I doubt that the film's visual texture would change significantly. The colors are vividly rendered: the various blues of the island waters, the greens of the Ramsey backyard, the nostalgic hues of their tree-lined street, the earth tones of Dailey's place and, of course, the jockeys' distinctive uniforms in the final race. Also memorable is the bright orange flame of the steamship as it sinks into the sea. The film's grain structure is very much in evidence in darker scenes, probably too much for some viewers' tastes. In brighter scenes, the grain is less obvious but still present. I saw no evidence of grain reduction or artificial sharpening (concepts which tend to be used interchangeably on internet forums but signify entirely different forms of digital manipulation). At an average bitrate of 32.89 Mbps, MGM has provided more than enough bandwidth to handle the film's many complex scenes of motion involving The Black's energetic and often unpredictable interactions with humans.
The Black Stallion was released in stereo. Its supervising sound editor, Alan Splet, was awarded a special achievement Oscar for his work. According to IMDb, a six-track mix was also prepared for 70mm exhibition, but I was not able to verify this. MGM's 1997 DVD contained a stereo track, but the Blu-ray's soundtrack offers a 5.1 remix presented in lossless DTS-HD MA. The remix has good points and bad points. The dynamic range is impressive, with surprisingly deep bass extension during key scenes like the sinking of the ship and the racing sequence. The force, precision and directionality with which The Black's hoof beats are rendered as it runs this way and that, and as the film's point of view shifts, add an important element of realism to the visuals. The roar of the crowd at Santa Anita and the pounding of the other horses contribute to the visceral excitement of the film's climactic sequence. The dialogue, however, sometimes sounds slightly detached. Some of this is undoubtedly due to looping made necessary by the difficulty of capturing clean production sound while working with live animals. Some of it may be a byproduct of "opening up" the original mix to create a 5.1 track. Whatever the cause, the effect would be more jarring if the film depended on its dialogue, but for much of the running time, conversation is almost irrelevant. The score by Carmine Coppola is in a wholly different register than his more familiar work for the Godfather films. By turns sober, playful and soaring, it perfectly suits the film's shifting tones.
Except for a trailer (1080p; 1.85:1; 1:59), the disc has no extras. MGM continues to employ its user-unfriendly approach to catalog titles in which it provides no main menu, uses BD-Java and withholds the ability to bookmark your place so that you can return to it after stopping playback. (Universal has adopted the same approach, but their discs automatically save your stopping point and offer you the option to resume from that time mark.)
It is worth remembering that, even for its time, The Black Stallion was a low-budget film. It could no doubt look better, but it certainly doesn't look bad. When one speaks of Ballard as a "visual" director, the reference is to his sense of composition, his placement of people, animals and objects in relation to each other in the frame, and his ability to convey relationships wordlessly through gestures and expressions. Though perhaps not the absolute best presentation possible, MGM's Blu-ray of this magical film presents Ballard's work with the bulk of its visual information intact and is therefore recommended.
1937
SDR
1931
Limited Edition to 3000 - SOLD OUT
1980
2014
1991
2016
1962
2011
1953
2012
Warner Archive Collection
1944
Limited Edition to 3000
1983
Warner Archive Collection
1940
1965
1964
1993
2011
2007
1966
55th Anniversary Edition
1960