Customer Reviews

Lightning, The White Stallion

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

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...

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.

Wow, this movie was so bad I really don't even know where to start! I got the white stallion because the cover stated,"Classic family entertainment in the tradition of The Black Stallion." That is far from the truth! This movie is about as far from the Black Stallion as you can get! In previous reviews, people stated that the movie was so bad it was funny. That is true, my favorite is the fact that a sixtyish Mickey Rooney is in love with a twenty year old woman! It's hysterical! The plot is a joke, and really not worth mentioning, and the acting is terrible! The main character, goes to the doctor, and he tells her she has, "an eye disease." that's it, that is the prognosis, and she may go blind from it! All in all, the movie is not worth watching, the horse really doesn't have a major role in this movie. He doesn't have a stong bond with the girl, and the only reason she likes him is because he is worth a lot of money, and she can sell him to cure her, "eye disease". Don't even bother with this one people, go watch something worth it. I would suggest The Black Stallion, The Horse Whisperer, Phar Lap, and National Velvet. Now those are wonderful horse movies!

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?

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!

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

you can't take every movie so literally. there's something wrong with every movie, but as a horse lover I enjoyed this movie. It's a great feel good movie if you love horses. I myself am a rider and although the movie may have it's faults it is stil a great movie

I am a fan of the Black Stallion movies and Mickey Rooney. However, this is NOT a movie that I would recommend.

The plot was ok but left open enormous gaps in its logic and an unfinished ending; for instance, the lead female is going blind but somehow she wins the nationals in show jumping when she would have needed to have a physical exam to compete in it.

The actors appear to be Canadian although California competitors will recognize one arena at the LA Equestrian Center in every horse show featured in the movie (supposedly in different areas). The settings were not varied enough nor were the horses consistent. In some scenes the lead horse is grayish with a chewed off tail and then in others he is white with a long flowing tail.

Overall the acting was that of a "B Movie," too stilted to be believable with odd cinematography that tried too hard to make up for it. I am sorry for Mickey Rooney to have this on his resume; he is a much better actor than what came out in this film.

For people wanting a good family horse movie I would recommend Disney's "Miracle of the White Stallions" or Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment's "Sylvester" instead of this film.

So the cinematography isn't great, there's no logic to the ending, the main character's equitation leaves much to be desired, but MAN I loved this movie as a kid! I watched it probably 100 times. Had to give it 5 stars for nostalgia's sake. I would recommend it for kids, not so much for adults. :)

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.