“Son, if you can ride that horse you can have that horse.”
The film is based on a 1941 classic children’s novel The Black Stallion by Walter Farley. Francis Ford Coppola was the executive producer on this film while he was making Apocalypse Now. Cass Ole, a champion Arabian stallion from Texas, portrayed ‘The Black’ in most of the movie, with Fae Jur, his primary double. Fae Jur’s main scene is when Alec is trying to gain the trust of the stallion on the beach. Two other stunt doubles were used for the running, fighting and swimming scenes. El Mokhtar, an Egyptian Arabian racehorse, was the producers’ first choice, but his owners declined any offers. Later, however, he appeared in The Black Stallion Returns, alongside Cass Ole, after the studio bought out the syndicate of owners in order to secure El Mokhtar’s services. The Black’s friend, the old white horse named Napoleon was portrayed by Junior, who previously appeared in National Lampoon’s Animal House as Trooper – Niedermeyer’s horse. The film’s composer, Carmine Coppola (Francis’ father) was nominated twice for Best Original Score by the Golden Globe Awards that year. Carmine won for Apocalypse Now. The scene when Alec looks at all the old memorabilia in Henry Dailey’s (Mickey Rooney) office, one of the old photos on the wall is of a younger Rooney on the horse from National Velvet (1944). Rooney was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, reviving his career. In 2002, the U.S. Library of Congress selected this film for preservation in the National Film Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
