Load of rubbish!!

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Blistering performances.

Follow-up to the acclaimed 1979 film, regarding a young American lad in the 1940s who bonds with an Arabian stallion while shipwrecked on an island, picks up where its predecessor left off. The boy, having won a championship race while riding the Black, has his horse stolen by a sheik who claims the horse is actually his. Following the horse thieves, the kid stows away on a plane headed for Casablanca, where he learns the Black will be entered in a new competition. Although the horse is the same (except for the racing shots) and the kid (Kelly Reno) is the same, director Carol Ballard from the first film is missing, and one can sense almost immediately that "The Black Stallion Returns" is without Ballard's dreamy pace and caressing images (here, Robert Dalva sets up individual scenes with a ham-fisted directness that makes the whole enterprise seem perfunctory, and he has no talent whatsoever with actors). Since the story is a washout, there's nothing to occupy one's interest except for the technical accomplishments, including Carlo di Palma's fine, if inexpressive, cinematography and Georges Delerue's lovely score. As for the performances, Reno doesn't have a professional actor's polish (which is both pro and con), but Allen Goorwitz (Garfield), playing the sheik's competitor for the Black (an Arab named Kurr!), is hopelessly if amusingly miscast as the proverbial cackling-villain; Vincent Spano (as Moroccan an actor as money could buy) is equally out-of-place as Reno's desert friend, while Teri Garr returns in a walk-on as Reno's mother (it's even less of a cameo than she had the first time). Not terrible, certainly, but a turgid adventure, trotting out aged stereotypes and a formula finale. *1/2 from ****

I am giving this movie a 1 although I haven't gotten done watching the whole thing yet. *Spoiler* --> I paused to read up on the film, to see if there were any comments on animal cruelty. The point where I stopped the film was when numerous ropes were thrown around the horse's neck (toward the end). While watching this, I could not help but think how extremely stressed out this horse was. When I looked up the IMDb info, I saw that this particular beautiful horse died of colic during the making of the film. I am not surprised, as this horse is put into so many highly stressful situations.... and that makes me very sad, and disgusted. If you do watch the film, you will see an amazingly intelligent horse, gorgeous. I would give this film 0 for considering welfare of El Mokhtar. There is no reason why any animal should die during a shoot. And, filming in and of itself is so stressful with numerous takes & "big egos". I can't imagine what this horse went through: Desert, stress, and it neighed/screamed a lot during the film. :'(

For some unknown reason those whose profession it is to write reviews didn't think highly of this picture, but I found it amazingly well done. Kelly Reno was superb in his portrayal of a teenager who travels from New York all the way to the desert in Morocco in an attempt to retrieve his horse, kidnapped in New York and taken to Morocco. While the story is implausible, the ACTION and the filming and music are superb. See it, if you can.

"The Black Stallion Returns" is shot in 1.85:1, and I saw it in 1.33:1 because of the TV-network cut it down as usual. "The Black Stallion Returns" is a cinema-movie, you should see this on the big screen but after all, this should be done in 2.35:1 instead. This doesn't mean that the movie is bad because of the wrong format, but it would be more powerful in a wider one, as long as the cinematographer would handle it together with the director (I think they would). One of the reasons why it is shot in 1.85:1 might be that the first film was in that format too.The story is faster and the film is shorter than it could be. After a standard opening, all gets better. And soon Alec, the main character reaches the desert, which is the reason why I wanted to see this movie. This isn't "Lawrence of Arabia" by David Lean, I know that, but the desert scenes are beautiful. And it is because of this scenes I like this movie. Everything started with photos from this film that I saw as a kid. The impression was that the desert was beautiful, or could be shown as beautiful. I should have seen "Lawrence of Arabia" already when I was younger, maybe I would have liked it even more than. For me, "The Black Stallion Returns" could have more and also slower desert scenes than it has, without getting a bit boring."The Black Stallion Returns" is actually shot in Morocco, North Africa. The cinematography is not poor, far from. But some of the characters could be better done. The choice of Woody Strode as Meslar was perfect, but he isn't used as good as I hoped. Alan Garfield doesn't amuse as Kurr, a villain, I had hoped that Kurr would be cooler and more menacing. Kelly Reno is a bit weak but at least okay as Alec, but Vincent Spano is cool as the Arabian prince.The music by Georges Delerue is a bit unequal but at times very good.The best parts of this movie are without doubts the desert scenes, including the horse race in the end (even if I think it should have been even better).If you hate horses (why should you?) you can't like this, but otherwise it isn't that hard to enjoy this movie, even if it gets very emotional and describe the relationship between Alec and Black as close as a relation can be, which is booth fascinating and perhaps irritating. Here the direction shows what it really wants to show: emotions, admiration, love, friendship and almost worship from Alec to the Black. In that chase, the director (Robert Dalva) has succeeded."The Black Stallion Returns" is first of all a movie for a younger audience than me. That is why I see so many ways how it could have been even better, a more "hard core" movie with a harder, more action-filled tune and an even stronger adventure-feeling in style with perhaps my favorite from this time; "Conan the Barbarian". This would be a movie that was perhaps fitting a wider audience, or at least another.I saw "The Black Stallion Returns" before I saw 'The Black Stallion', I think that is the best way to enjoy this sequel (it is somehow rather independent from the first one).(Goofs:) Couldn't Kurr's Uruk men have killed the stallion instead of letting it survive or did they want it to survive? This is not clearly explained.Rating: 6 of 10.