Black Beauty, A Great HEART-RENDING TALE
Does the 1994 film adaptation rise to the occasion?
Black Beauty, the classic novel by author Anna Sewell, has always been a favorite of mine. I think I first read it in junior high school and have read it many more times over the years. In my last blog post, I discussed the best and worst film adaptations of the famed classic Wuthering Heights.
I will not be doing that with this amazing book. Instead, I will focus solely on the 1994 adaptation of Black Beauty and how it compares to the book. However, to give you options, there are many other adaptations of this film available, and each one varies greatly from the others; from classic attempts like this version, as well as animated and contemporary variations.
About Anna Sewell
Author of Black Beauty
So, who was Anna Sewell exactly? Anna Sewell was a young woman full of dreams, with a deep love for animals – especially horses – and was mentally and emotionally invested in animal welfare and their fair treatment.
Born in the coastal town of Great Yarmouth, England on March 30, 1820, Anna was the daughter of Quaker parents who taught her and her brother, Philip, to be gentle and kind. Her father was a banker, her mother a writer – which is how she came to write the notable classic, Black Beauty.
At the tender age of fourteen, Anna sustained leg injuries from an accident which left her maimed for life; causing her to rely heavily on the use of a pony cart wherever she went. This same accident also drew her to helping her mother and
soon developed a passion for literature as well as horses, thus paving the way for her only novel, Black Beauty.
Anna lived a long life with her family, never married, and died in April 1878 at the age of 58.
Meet the Characters
The list is extensive, but each character listed plays a vital role to the telling of this story, many of them having been left out of the film.
The Horses
- Duchess, favorite of Farmer Grey, black mare of genteel breeding – Black Beauty’s mother – owned by Farmer Grey
- Rob Roy, owned by George Gordon, black horse used for hunting – Black Beauty’s brother – owned by Squire Gordon
- Merrylegs, fat, grey pony used by the young misses Jessie and Flora – owned by Squire Gordon
- Ginger, beautiful but fiery, ill-tempered, chestnut mare – owned by Squire Gordon
- Sir Oliver, old brown hunter used by the young misses Jessie and Flora – owned by Squire Gordon
- Justice, roan cob – owned by Squire Gordon
- Captain, white horse used as a cab horse – owned by Jerry Barker
- Hotspur, high spirited brown cab horse – owned by Jerry Barker
- Rory, lease horse – owned by Skinner
- Peggy, dun mare, lease horse – owned by Skinner
The People
- Farmer Grey, Black Beauty’s first owner
- Squire Gordon, owner of Birtwick Park
- Mrs. Gordon, wife of Squire Gordon
- George Gordon, son of Squire Gordon
- John Manly, head groom at Birtwick Park
- James, under groom at Birtwick Park
- Joe Green, new under groom at Birtwick Park
- Earl of W-, owner of Earlshall Park
- Countess of W-, wife of Earl of W-
- Lord George, son of Lord and Lady W-
- Lady Anne
- Blantyre, Lady Anne’s cousin
- Mr. York, Coachman at Earlshall Park
- Reuben Smith, Groom at Earlshall Park
- Jeremiah Barker – Jerry, cab owner
- Polly Barker, wife of Jerry
- Dorothy Barker – Dolly, daughter of Jerry and Polly
- Harry Barker, son of Jerry and Polly
- Grant – Gray Grant, cab man
- Seedy Sam, cab driver
- Jakes, a carter
- Skinner, owner of lease horses and cabs
- Farmer Thoroughgood
- Willie, grandson of Farmer Thoroughgood
- Miss. Blomefield
- Miss. Ellen
- Miss. Lavinia
Being a horse lover from near birth, Black Beauty was one of the first books that I read growing up and still holds a place of fondness in my heart. I love that Anna Sewell told the story from the horse’s point of view and that she didn’t water down the difficult topics of animal cruelty and neglect of her time. We have come a long way with fair treatment laws and the doing away with such things as the check rein but, no matter how far we come as a society, there will always be cruel people in the world.
But, back to the book. The story begins with Black Beauty telling us about his earliest memories as a young foal with his mother and takes us on a journey through his life, from one owner to the next. Each time he changes hands, his situation drops down a notch until he has hit bottom and is nearly without hope, until the kindly farmer, Farmer Thoroughgood, finds him at a horse sale and he is returned to some old and dear friends.
The book was extremely well crafted and is a wonderful choice for showing us the good, the bad, and the ugly truths of a horse’s life in 1800 England. I will not venture into telling too much, being that I don’t want to spoil the book for those who may not have read it yet, but I will say this; if you love horses with a deep passion and are empathetic towards others, you may want to grab a box of tissues before you begin reading. You will need them.
Black Beauty – The 1994 Film
Directed by Caroline Thompson, produced by Robert Shapiro and Peter MacGregor-Scott, and starring Sean Bean, David Thewlis, Jim Carter, Peter Davison, Alun Armstrong, John McEnery, Eleanor Bron, Peter Cook, Andrew Knott, Adrian Ross Magenty, Rosalind Ayres, and Docs Keepin Time as Black Beauty.
The film opens with the adult Black Beauty beginning to narrate his story while laying beneath a tree in a field, then skips to show the day of his birth with farmer Grey assisting Black Beauty’s mother.
Though the book has him narrating his story, this is where the similarity ends. The book does not discuss his birth but begins with him in a field with his mother, Duchess. He describes in great detail what it was like running and playing in the field, while his mother grazed. He was happy. I know because he tells us that he was happy.
Now, there are many people in the world who don’t know much about horses, and that’s fine; however, when the film industry attempts to make a monkey of us by switching one gender for another, as they did in this film, I find it rather annoying. You see, the foal that they used to play the new born Black Beauty was in fact female, not male. It was also not black, as the book states, but is actually a dull brown. The script writers later correct this by having Beauty shed his baby coat – this is not as the book says. It clearly says in the book that Beauty has a dusky black coat that changes to a glossy black as he grows older.
DUCHESS
Another foible of the film creators is that they show Black Beauty’s mother, Duchess, playing with him in the field. This is not in the book. Beauty tells us in the book about his romps and runs with other, older foals that like to gallop, buck,
and kick – something that his mother warns him should not be done even in play. The scene with the other foals is missing entirely from the movie.
The Breaking In Time
Skipping to farmer Grey, and Beauty’s breaking in, the film leaves a lot out that was in the book. In fact, the film shows Beauty fighting with farmer Grey but that’s not how it goes in the book. In the book, Beauty talks about how gentle his breaking in was, and how he recalls what his mother had taught him.
Much of this breaking-in period was left out of the film, including a missing scene where farmer Grey takes Beauty to stay a while with some cows in a field that is close to a train track when Beauty turned four years old. Beauty admits that it was his time in that field that made a huge difference when he first went to a train station.
Instead, the film has him, at the age of three, going to stay in a field with sheep and cows, but without the train tracks.
I do want to state now that there is a lot of narration and back story, as well as many important scenes that are missing from this film that are in the book. One such scene is when Beauty was still a young colt in the field with his mother and some other horses, and they witness a hunt that went all wrong. It’s Beauty’s first experience with tragedy and should not have been left out.
A New Home
When Beauty arrives at Squire Gordon’s home, Birtwick Park, he is brought in by a groom who leads him to one of the stables.
Beauty describes the stable as being roomy with a large window that let the fresh air in and four large stalls – one being a box stall, the rest being an old-fashioned type of stall where the horse is tied to a ring in the back wall. This type of stall is no longer in use today, and they did not show it in the movie.
Instead, they have more than four stalls, all box stalls with latched doors, in an outside, side-by-side, layout that is incongruent to the book.
It must be said as well that the book has a groom by the name of James who works under John Manly, the Coachman, who takes care of Beauty, and is later replaced by a younger lad named Joe Green. The film leaves James out entirely and gives all of his scenes and dialogue to young Joe. They also left out some scenes here as well as adding some that do not exist in the book.
When Beauty first enters his new box stall, he meets a cute grey pony named Merrylegs who welcomes him, then he is introduced to a chestnut mare named Ginger who Beauty describes as ill-tempered. Ginger haughtily accuses Beauty of turning a lady out of her box. The film shows something different.
Merrylegs
In the film version, Merrylegs isn’t even there when Beauty is put into his box. Instead, he is out being ridden by the two young ladies, Miss. Jessie and Miss. Flora (this scene happens a bit later in the book).
There is a lot of dialogue from Merrylegs that is missing from the film as well. In fact, they leave out Ginger’s entire story that tells how she became ill-tempered in the first place and how she came to be in Squire Gordon’s stable.
Now, back to Merrylegs. The book tells us that after Merrylegs got done letting the young ones ride him around the park, James brought him back to the stable and put him in his stall. Well, with James not even in the movie, the screen writers have Merrylegs bringing himself back and putting himself away by unlatching his own stall gate. Incredible, though not accurate.
Friends
Black Beauty has three good friends at Birtwick park that are mentioned in the book; Merrylegs, Ginger, and an old brown hunter named Sir Oliver. We see them all gathered together one Sunday in the field for a bit of rest and conversation.
They talk together about many things – all of which was left out of the movie. And the movie leaves Sir Oliver out completely so that we see only Ginger and Merrylegs with Beauty, and nothing at all of the little dog, Frisky either.
Earlshall Park
Beauty must move yet again. This time to Earlshall Park, home of the Earl and Lady W-. The book does not give anything beyond the W, but the movie says that their title is Wexmire. How did they learn that?
Besides filling in their title name, the film took further liberties in having John Manly going with Merrylegs to his new home while Joe took Ginger and Beauty to Earlshall Park. This is the exact opposite from the book.
Instead of Joe dropping off Ginger and Beauty then leaving, it was actually John who took them, and he spent time talking to the coachman, Mr. York, explaining about Ginger’s past issues and how to manage the pair of horses – though this is absent from the film.
As for the Countess of W-, although they portrayed her temperament well enough, the film did an injustice to her character when they installed a scene where she has Black Beauty standing in the house while she paints his picture. Not only is that not at all in the book, but it is ridiculous as well.
In Conclusion
Though I intended to give a much more in-depth critique and share about the many other inconsistencies between this film and the book, I find that my material is too vast, which would make this blog post entirely too long. I had wanted to touch on Beauty’s accident with Rueben Smith, his illness, the barn fire, his relationship with Jerry, and his time as a cab horse in Mr. Skinner’s stable, as well as so many others that are either missing or incorrect in the film. Since I must jump to the end in the interest of time, let me just say that even the ending does not match the book in that it blended the two final scenes together to make one, leaving out a wealth of material.
Even with all of the dissimilarities between the book and movie, I must say that the film in and of itself was well made. The time period was portrayed accurately in scene, clothing, and character, and the story was engaging. My only wish is that they would have done a better job with representing Anna Sewell’s fine work of art: Black Beauty.