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This movie taught me so gracefully, when I was very young, that play can sometime reach fearful animals when other approaches can't.
Here's the clip that follows this one. It's incredibly beautiful.
And this one, where Alex learns to ride.
Like, it's impossible to imagine a movie today having this much PATIENCE, just letting the slow, sweet story of an animal and a child coming to trust and love each other unfold.
And when I was a kid, watching this movie, I watched that island scene over and over, and usually skipped the second half of the movie. I didn't know how to frame why I didn't like it.
Whereas now, it's pretty clear to me that in putting it into a sports-movie framework, the filmmakers thought the ending, the Black Stallion and his boy winning the race, was a happy one.
So much that they intercut the end of the race with scenes on the island, which only highlights how something transcendent--that blossoming of trust and love--gets flattened into "win this horse race for the press and the money and the fame."
Like, I dunno, but this juxtaposition does the present, the harshness of the racetrack, no favors.
