#william d wittliff

Honeysuckle Rose (1981). Buck is a country singer on the road caught in a romantic triangle with Viv and Lily, the daughter of his longtime musical sidekick.

The music’s great, but the plot is thin and generally pretty sexist. I mean, Amy Irving has to apologise to literally everyone in their extended life about having the affair while he gets to lick his wounds in the desert and then get forgiven in a song? Please. 4/10.

The Black Stallion (1979). After being shipwrecked with a magnificent horse off the coast of Africa in the 1940s, a boy bonds with the stallion, and trains him to race after their rescue.

I’ve seen a lot of horse movies for this project, and I do think this is one of the better ones. That’s almost entirely due to the lush and evocative cinematography, which must’ve been spectacular to watch on the big screen! It’s really beautiful stuff. Otherwise, this movie is a pretty conventional horse racing movie with a minor twist in the opening with the boy and the horse being shipwrecked together. It’s worth checking out, especially if you like the genre. 7/10.