BLACK BEAUTY
UK, 1971, 106 minutes, Colour.
Mark Lester, Walter Slezak, Peter Lee Lawrence, Patrick Mower, John Nettleton, Maria Rohm.
Directed by James Hill.
Black Beauty has been filmed many times. It is based on a classic children’s novel by Anna Sewell. There was a version in the 1940s which took the novel as a base but moved beyond it. Subsequent films and television series as well as some animated versions stayed closer to the novel. The film focuses on a horse, its breeding, a young man tending it, hopes, achievement. In some ways, it was the basis for horse stories and variations on it have become in some ways stereotyped.
The star is Mark Lester who three years earlier had made an impact as Oliver Twist in the musical Oliver. Walter Slezak was a veteran of silent films in Scandinavia and moved to Hollywood where he had many villain roles.
1. Was this an enjoyable film? Why? Its best features? For what age group was it made? What appealed most to children? What appealed to adults? Were they successfully blended?
2. Comment on the impact of the screenplay, the picture of 19th century England, the emphasis on the horses, the relationship of humans to animals, the succession of adventures for Black Beauty, continuing interest and variety in the adventures.
3. How important were production values for this film? The use of locations, sets, the variety of scope in the scenes and settings, costumes and décor? How did this add to the value and enjoyment of the film?
4. What audience interest in horses did the film presuppose? The horses during the credits, the birth of Black Beauty, the human treatment of the horse? What horses can achieve? How could the audience identify well with the experiences of Black Beauty? Did the film humanise the horse? Or did it show accurately the relationship between humans and horse?
5. How well-portrayed was Beauty as hero of the film? Getting the audience to identify with the horse and its treatment? A horse’s view, so to speak, of humans and their behaviour?
6. Comment on each of the sequences and the adventures for understanding the film. Black Beauty, human reactions, 19th century England:
7. The birth of the horse, the poverty of the farm, the love that Joe gave to the horse?
8. The barbarity of the squire, his cruelty, behaviour at the funeral, at the Inns, driving horses, his wager, his death? Being found by the gypsies, the gypsy way of life, the race for the king, the cheating, Beauty supporting the winner? Being found by the market men, the cheating in the way that Beauty was sold, the circus people and way of life, the circus owner and his kindness, the love of the daughter, his achievement in the circus, the menace of the rival circus, the siege by the police, the death of the owner?
10. Sir George and his gift of the horse to his daughter, her love for beauty, the atmosphere of aristocracy and its way of life, romance, the overtones of military life in the 19th century, heroism and cowardice? Beauty as a gift to Gervaise?
11. India and the Empire, the siege and the heroics of wars, Beauty's ride? As a hack horse veteran, being sold in the inn, life in the coal pits, hardness? Beauty’s getting old? Miss Sour and the saving of the horse and the freedom and return to Joe?
12. How arresting a picture of Britain and its people, humanity, the good and bad in people? What values did the film stand for and how did it reinforce them?
