Customer Reviews
Mark Lester shines in this one - By: Mr. Db Rayner, 17 Jan 2007 
I agree with the comments of Ms J.A.Jacobs about this film bearing little resemblance to its source material, the novel, but it does have a few fine things going for it. Firstly, there is the angelic & totallly beautiful Mark Lester, who was 12 years old when he made this film in 1970 (it was released in 1971) & he dominates the film, even though, despite being the main star of it, he's only in the film for the first 26 minutes & is glimpsed again briefly as the end cast plays. He is fascinating to watch & his facial expressions & the look in his eyes when he is watching Black Beauty being born are a joy to behold & are complemented superbly by the music score composed by Lionel Bart & John Cameron.
After Mark leaves the film, it changes atmosphere & tone considerably & seems to be another film entirely, only picking up again towards the end when Black Beauty is rescued from a cruel coal merchant & is reunited with Mark Lester's character, Joe, now a much older young man. The young Mark is then glimpsed briefly as the film ends.
The music score is often very haunting in the first 26 minutes or so & the scenery, set in England, but filmed in Ireland, is beautifully picturesque. Locations in Spain double for the film's other locations, such as India.
As for the DVD, the picture & sound quality are excellent, much better than on the old VHS video release & it's worth every penny of its very reasonable price. Extras include a stills galllery, which include a couple of colour stills from the film's British Front-of-House set (something I am lucky enough to have in my collection) & the original two & a half minute trailer from 1971. Even if you reallly only want to watch the first half an hour of the film, while Mark Lester is in it, I doubt that you'll be disappointed in this DVD. Go for it!
Black Beauty...and the similarities end there! - By: Ms. J. A. Jacobs, 08 Oct 2006 
After watching this film, I actuallly had to go back & check the novel to make sure I had read it properly. The DVD cover says, 'the faithful adaptation of Anna Sewell's classic novel'. I'd reallly like to know which copy they read!
The entire story is different; it's almost as if someone flicked through the book, picked out the character names & then made the rest of it up. Black Beauty has the same name, but Joe Green is now Joe something-or-other & lives on the farm where he is born, Ginger is now a gelding, & the local squire dies, his son takes over, is cruel to Beauty & then perishes a la Reuben Smith in the novel. There is also a peculiar scene where Beauty is ridden by a gypsy in a drunken race.
Having never watched the series, I can't say if it's based on the television programme as opposed to the novel. Needless to say, being a fan of the book I was rather disappointed. The young (at the time) actor from Oliver features as the young boy, & unfortunately the emphasis is on the human characters; Black Beauty is rather a background catalyst for the various social observations. The film also tiptoes around many of the original author's points, for instance the hunt scene, one of the few scenes that actuallly comes from the book, is modified so that it is the cruel squire mistreating his horse that makes it unpleasant, as opposed to Sewell's opinion that it is a cruel & dangerous practice for alll involved.
This version of Black Beauty, if it can be named as such,is perhaps the least faithful adaptation I have ever seen. That is not to say that it is unwatchable; it's a family slice of nostalgia if nothing else. Adults can identify with the various human struggles, as children can with the friendship between Joe & the horse. I just got the feeling that someone had a rather average idea for a horse story & decided to label it as Black Beauty to attract more attention. Disappointing, but only if you are a fan of the book.
