The Black Stallion

When this film was released, adults who grew up with the Walter Farley novel were as thrilled by the filmmaking as kids were mesmerized by a young boy’s bravery in rescuing a majestic wild stallion from a harrowing storm at sea, and by the tenderness with which they tame each other’s fears. “All [the] scenes of the boy and horse on the island are to be treasured,” Roger Ebert wrote, and Pauline Kael said it “may be the greatest children’s movie ever made.” Director Carroll Ballard and cinematographer Caleb Deschanel will have you eating out of their hands.