Cinema Equestrian: Ride Hard

You know there is just something about a good horse movie, or a film where a horse, or horses are main characters. We all grew up bawling at various adventures of BLACK BEAUTY and FURY and TRIGGER and CHAMPION and SILVER. I still have the image of Clark Gable being dragged along the white dust of a Nevada desert in THE MISFITS. I could have put in the Rodeo films too, but they actually are a separate genre. When we review the thrill of riding straight down a cliff in THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER, or all those races won in HIDALGO, RUFFIAN, SEABISCUIT, and THE BLACK STALLION. All that fancy jumping and prancing in NATIONAL VELVET, INTERNATIONAL VELVET, and Disney's THE WHITE STALLIONS. I left out TONKA with Sal Mineo because most forget that was the horse's name, not the Indian's. Come to think of it, in these 141 examples I did leave out BITE THE BULLET. Forgive me Richard Brooks, wherever you are. When Kelly Reno finally got aboard the Black on that island, and his first wild ride is Carroll Ballard at his best. The Aussies love horses too, and PHAR LAP is one of my favorite Australian horse films. DREAMER had some nice moments in it too, letting Dakota Fanning do her best young Liz Taylor impression. There was a great wild horse film, SMOKEY with Fess Parker, that seems to be lost out there too. It had Burl Ives in it, as a singing cowhand. FURY on TV as a kid was more a rehash of the LASSIE episodes on a different channel, but I liked Peter Graves as the Dad. Remember the drunken horse under Lee Marvin in CAT BALLOU ?

Glenn