The Black Stallion [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: Carroll Ballard

Overview

Featuring extraordinary cinematography that imbues the classic Walter Farely horse story with the hues and feeling of a great painting and telling the touching (without undue sentiment) yet truly exciting tale of a boy and his horse, The Black Stallion is truly a classic family film. The story begins on a storm-tossed sea in a large steamer heading west from the Middle East. Among the passengers are young Alec and his jovial father. Also aboard is a dangerously wild, but glorious black stallion. Alec is fascinated by the almost outworldly creature and gingerly slips him some sugar cubes. That night a terrible storm overtakes the ship and it sinks, killing everyone aboard but Alec and the horse, whom he manages to free before the ship goes down. Caught up in the horse's lead rope and floundering in the rough seas, Alec nearly drowns. But with Alec towed along behind the strongly swimming horse, the two make it to the safety of a tiny desert island. It is here, as boy and horse struggle to survive, that a great bond is formed. Initially theirs is a relationship formed out of necessity, but eventually the two become the best of friends so that when a rescue ship finally comes, Alec refuses to leave without the horse. Once back in his urban American home, Alec must face new challenges and figure out what to do with his still half-wild friend. Once again it is "the Black" who provides the solution when he escapes and ends up at the barn of a former jockey who sees in the steed great potential on the track. With his help, Alec and "the Black" enter an important horse race and this leads to the story's exciting and suspenseful conclusion.

Product Details

Release Date:	07/14/2015
UPC:	0715515151115
Original Release:	1979
Rating:	G
Source:	THE CRITERION COLLECTION, INC
Region Code:	A
Language:	English
Time:	1:57:00
Sales rank:	11,390

Special Features

New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by Director of Photography Caleb Deschanel, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack; Five short films by Director Carroll Ballard, with new introductions by the filmmaker: Pig! (1965), The Perils of Priscilla (1969), Rodeo (1969), Seems Like Only Yesterday (1971), and Crystallization (1974); New conversation between Ballard and film critic Scott Foundas; New interview with Deschanel; New piece featuring Mary Ellen Mark discussing her photographs from the film's set; Trailer; Plus: An essay by film critic Michael Sragow

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Kelly Reno	Alec Ramsey
Mickey Rooney	Henry Dailey
Teri Garr	Alec's Mother
Clarence Muse	Snoe
Hoyt Axton	Alec's Father
Michael Higgins	Neville
Doghmi Larbi	The Arab
Ed McNamara	Jake
John Burton	Jockey
John Buchanan	Jockey
Kristen Vigard	Becky
Fausto Tozzi	Rescue Captain
Carmine Coppola	Composer
Leopoldo Trieste	le pr?tre
Tom Dahlgren	le v?t?rinaire
Daniel Henning	Danny

Technical Credits

Jeanne Rosenberg

Melissa Mathison

William D. Wittliff

Walter Farley

Jeanne Rosenberg	Screenwriter
Melissa Mathison	Screenwriter
William D. Wittliff	Screenwriter
Fred Roos	Producer
Tom Sternberg	Producer
Francis Ford Coppola	Executive Producer
Walter Farley	Screenwriter
Rick Kline	Sound Effects
Steve Maslow	Sound Effects

Scene Index

Acknowledgments vii

Contributors ix

Introduction Michael Saenger 3

Part 1 The Meaning of Foreign Languages

Shakespeare, Navarre, and Continental History Elizabeth Pentland 23

"The Lady speaks in Welsh": Henry IV, Part 1 as Multilingual Drama Philip Schwyzer 46

Where Did the Devil Go? Religious Polemic in the Dutch Reformation, 1580-1630 Gary K. Waite 59

Part 2 Difference Within English

Loving and Cherishing 'True English': Shakespeare's Twinomials Scott Newstok 75

Shakespeare's Coining of Words Robert N. Watson 86

Shakespeare's Sound Government: Sound Defects, Polyglot Sounds, and Sounding Out Patricia Parker 107

Continental Sexuality and the Auditory Construction of Early Modern Englishness Lauren Coker 122

Introducing "Intrelinguistics": Shakespeare and Early/Modern English Paula Blank 138

Part 3 Shakespeare and Cultural Voice

Monument, Mountain, Root: Figures of Translation, from Romeo to Julia Brian Gingrich 159

Shakespearean Performance as a Multilingual Event: Alterity, Authenticity, Liminality Alexa Huang 190

Afterword James Loehlin 209

Notes 215

Index 273

Editorial Reviews

One of the most visually stunning family films ever made, Carroll Ballard's The Black Stallion is a fantastic tale about the liberation of a wild Arabian horse who saves Alec, a shipwrecked boy, and becomes his best friend. The film's first half-hour is daring, with no dialogue and breathtaking underwater photography of the horse and the boy. The reverie is broken by the more conventional second half, which features Mickey Rooney in a pleasing comeback role as a horse trainer who helps Alec race the untamed stallion. Kelly Reno is superbly authentic as Alec, but the real stars are the horse and the brilliant cinematography of Caleb Deschanel. The craftsmanship of the film, including a graceful score by Carmine Coppola, puts most child-and-animal films to shame. Ballard's background as a cinematographer influences the beauty of this and all his films, including Fly Away Home. He was not on board for the inferior sequel, The Black Stallion Returns, which lacks the original's beauty and charm.

The essays in this collection together produce a richer understanding of the multilingual and multicultural nature of Shakespeare’s own culture, as well as the global dialogue that his works not only illustrate, but also initiate.” Deanne Williams, Department of English, York University and author of The French Fetish from Chaucer to Shakespeare

“ ... Interlinguicity, Internationality, and Shakespeare focuses on the early modern era. Far from limiting the scope of the book, this focus actually opens up a wider range of “interlinguicities,” or relationships between languages. Highly recommended.” Choice

“[Michael Saenger’s collection provides] a particularly useful set of meditations on the multilingual nature of Shakespeare's and his audience's 'English'” Jonathan Gil Harris, Professor of English, Ashoka University

From the Publisher