Rating: 
Summary: Perhaps the worst horse movie ever made!
Review: Hoo boy, where to start? I hadn't seen this movie since I was a kid, and I remembered liking it, so when I saw the bad reviews here, I was a bit surprised. Then I decided to dig it out after all these years and watch it again. It's every bit as bad as the others here have said!
The plot is ridiculous. A groom runs off with an expensive stallion belonging to a heavily indebted millionaire (Mickey Rooney), then crashes while driving drunk. A school-bus driver stops, unloads all the kids, has them haul the inebriated man into the bus, and drops him off at the hospital on the way to school, leaving one of the students, Stephanie Ward (Susan George) behind to look after him! The thief proceeds to provide Stephanie, a complete stranger, with his and the horse's real names, gives her 15% ownership, and allows her to compete with the stolen stallion (originally Cloverdale III, renamed "Lightning" by Steph). Steph alternates between professing love for the horse and talking about how she can sell him for a lot of money if he becomes a champion, because she needs the funds for an eye operation, else she'll be blind within a year.
Even severe suspension of disbelief won't get you through this movie. Despite the stolen animal supposedly being worth a fortune, the police are never involved. Instead, two teenagers (Steph and her boyfriend) hunt down the criminals themselves. Stephanie somehow wins the national horse show, defeating an adult 5-time national champion, with only two previous shows as the sum total of her lifetime showing experience. The hospital sends her medical reports (diagnosis: "an eye disease") to her riding instructor before Stephanie herself receives any word. It just goes on and on...
The acting is abominable. I can't think of a single line in the entire film that was uttered in even a halfway-believable fashion. When she first interacts with the horse, Stephanie jumps and skitters around like a scared rabbit, despite laying claims to having years of equine experience, in an attempt to gain the trust of a horse so docile it looks half asleep. But perhaps Lightning's docility explains the reason he plods along like a plowhorse while Steph's boyfriend drives his noisy motorcycle right alongside! The bad guys are so inept as to be unintentionally comical rather than seeming threatening in any way. The one fight scene is an absolute farce. And though they apparently had a gun the whole time, they don't pull it out until the very end, and never actually use it.
Now we get to the horses. Lightning himself is played by at least three different equines - one nearly completely white, one a fleabitten grey, and another a light dapple grey. His muzzle alternates between dark grey and pink, he changes from chunky to streamlined between one scene and the next, and his face is sometimes dished, sometimes slightly roman-nosed! In the show ring, he has braids in all the full-body shots and a loose mane in all the facial closeups. The other horses in the shows are no better. One enters the show ring with no facial markings, develops a snip somewhere along the way, and leaves with a star. Another switches between a star and a blaze with each jump it goes over.
I love horses, but this is undoubtedly one of the worst films around. If you like watching bad films just for kicks, you'll have a great time with this one. I can't imagine why it appealed to me when I was little, but I suppose young kids are less likely to pick up on ridiculous plotlines and horrid acting. I can't comment on the DVD version, as I only own the VHS. My advice, though, is just skip it...
Rating: 
Summary: Ignore the bad reviews
Review: I was watching this movie at my friend's house and I wasn't expecting too much and I thought that it was pretty good, I'm surprised that this movie isn't very well known and I'm pretty glad that I gave this movie a chance, I really like the girl who played Stephanie Ward (forgot her name) cause she was beautiful, there are a couple of explicit words in the movie but I think that it's fun for the whole family to enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: movie from my childhood
Review: If it wasn't from the 80's but was more current, the way it was made would be better, but i give it 4 and a hlf stars simply for being so damn old. I watched this movie ritualisticlly as a chilod. i absolutely loved it. I am trying to find it on DVD right now. No movie is perfect, especially if it is from the 80's. Who cares if the horse had one white sock before a jmp and 2 after? it doesn't matter. i hate people who think little things like that totally ruin a movie. it is a wonderful movie, especially for young riders. it has been 10 years since i last saw it(which is when i stpped riding) and now that i own a horse and an getting back into the horse world, all i can think about it getting that movie. it is absolutely wonderful!!
Rating:
Summary: movie from my childhood
Review: If it wasn't from the 80's but was more current, the way it was made would be better, but i give it 4 and a hlf stars simply for being so damn old. I watched this movie ritualisticlly as a chilod. i absolutely loved it. I am trying to find it on DVD right now. No movie is perfect, especially if it is from the 80's. Who cares if the horse had one white sock before a jmp and 2 after? it doesn't matter. i hate people who think little things like that totally ruin a movie. it is a wonderful movie, especially for young riders. it has been 10 years since i last saw it(which is when i stpped riding) and now that i own a horse and an getting back into the horse world, all i can think about it getting that movie. it is absolutely wonderful!!
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic comedy!!
Review: My daughter and I nearly choked with laughter watching it last night. The dialogue cannot be described and as others have mentioned the changes in the horses are well worth the rental fee. Watching a horse with 2 white rear stockings take off and land with just one front white stocking is amusing to say the least. One horse enters with a star, develops a blaze and then leaves with nothing. It's fabulous! I wish MST3000 would run this despite the lack of aliens. Poor Mickey Rooney - what was he thinking? Didn't he read the script before he signed on?
Rating:
Summary: Just Say Neigh!
Review: Our daughter loved the Black Stallion movie, and I was a big horse nut as a kid too, so I thought, hey, Mickey Rooney, Susan George, a pretty horse. Oh, my word. Mr. Ed would have delivered his lines better than this cast. And the music? It was horse-hockey from start to finish. And I didn't even notice all the equine switcheroos. I loved it that the bus driver would leave one of his students at a hospital to watch over some drunk they pulled off the side of the road. The clueless bad guys who leave with a name instead of the money, the fight with the girlfriend that made less sense than a congressional hearing, the horsewoman who tells the stable boy about the girl's medical report before the girl finds out herself. This was a veritable Kentucky Derby of faux pas. I just hope Mickey Rooney can find it in his heart to forgive the agent who talked him into this pile of road apples.
Rating:
Summary: A movie barely cobbled together
Review: Stephanie (Isabel García Lorca) finds a beautiful white stallion one day and takes it home with her - "Honest, Dad, he followed me home from school" - and turns him into a show-jumper. Meanwhile, Lightning's rightful owner, Barney (Mickey Rooney) is wondering what's become of his horse. Perhaps it's karma for taking something that isn't hers, because shortly after finding the critter Stephanie is diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease and has her pride and joy stolen from her by Barney's creditors. Lazy acting meshes with the poor continuity, and overwrought storyline.
Staci Layne Wilson
Author of Staci's Guide to Animal Movies
Rating:
Summary: So bad, it's good!
Review: This film isn't supposed to be a comedy, but anyone who is familiar with horses or the world of horse shows will find it hilarious. The title character is played by several horses that don't even look alike (it's especially fun to watch his tail change length from scene to scene). I also enjoyed the show ring scenes where the ring announcer gives a running commentary on the rider's performance and life history. The setting is someplace like Iowa or Nebraska and the lead actress has a french accent. I must have missed the part where this was explained, but it certainly adds something to the overall hokiness of the film. Poor Mickey Rooney. I'll bet he has nightmares about this one!
Rating: 
Summary: Great Movie!!
Review: This is possibly the worst movie ever made in the best possible way. The plot is ludicrus, the acting atrocious and it looks like it was edited by a blind person. Due to all of this, the producers have managed to create a comedic gem.Mickey Rooney must have been in dire straights to agree to be in this movie. The plot doesn't make sense whatsoever. I mean, this girl goes from competing at a local horse show, to the State Championship to the National Horse Show in the span of a month or so all while going blind. Also, I'm still not sure why her boyfriend liked her. Plus she is one of the worst riding actors I have seen onscreen and yet she's praised to the sky as being some sort of prodigy. Weird. The best part of this movie is truly the editing. People are switching places from angle to angle, clothing changes colour and they have obvious horse and people switches. Not to mention that there are about 12 different "Lightnings" in this movie and all are noticably different. It's like they didn't even try. This movie is worth watching if you're in for a laugh. Do not go into it expecting another Black Stallion. Go into it expecting a movie that looks like it ran out of money before they hit the editing room. Classic.
Rating:
Summary: Cute Film
Review: This movie is good just because mickey rooney is in it:) This is a cute film....i like it a lot! Recommended!
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