I read a book about Seabiscuit many years ago…so there is a new book out then? Glad to know it if so, because I didn’t care for the old one.
Hey Cowtime, I also grew up loving and reading any horse story I could get my hands on. Did you like the Black Stallion series? I had a tradition for a long time…to get a Black Stallion book or two for my birthday every year. I still really enjoy those books.
Same here! In fact, I wrote my very first (and only) fan letter when I was about 8 or 9…to Walter Farley!
Redwolf
Cool! Did he write back?
He was one of my heroes growing up…not just because he wrote such great horse stories, but also because he wrote the very first one at such a young age! It gave me hope that I could also write someday. 
Wow! The Black Stallion series was THE favorite series of my youth! Great books! I remember when I started collecting them, the originals had started going out of print… I resorted to looking in used books stores, and I managed to get the entire series (except for two books). Read them all like 20 million times… 
Did you know that Walter Farley’s son (Steven, I think) continued the series? He wrote two books (I have them both and they’re quite good), ‘The Black Stallion’s Shadow’ and ‘The Black Stallion’s Steeplechaser.’ He also started his own “offshoot series” off of it… focusing on a colt by the Black that is being taken care of at a young girl’s farm in Florida… I have the first two in that one, but I didn’t like them nearly as well as the others. They seem to be for a younger audience.
But good books.
Yes, he did. This was just before the release of “The Black Stallion’s Ghost,” and he (or more likely, his secretary) wrote telling me about it. I still have the letter somewhere (and I even got my picture in the “education” section of the local paper because our school librarian thought it was so cool to have a kid writing to an author).
I’m afraid I don’t like the Steven Farley books nearly as much. 
Redwolf
I grew up reading the Black Stallion books too. As an adult, writing the odd freelance piece for equestrian magazines, I noticed that Mr. Farley would occasionally write a letter to the editor of The Chronicle of the Horse, a most excellent weekly equestrian sports magazine. Of course they published them–I’m sure they were all fans, too.
M
Yeah, anyone who grows up loving horses HAS to read the entire Black Stallion series. It’s required reading. I use to check them out of the county bookmobile. I did thousands of drawings of the Black when I was a “youngun” learning to drawn horses. I also loved the book Farley did on Man O’ War, my first purchase of a hard bound book.That was my introduction to that magnificient creature.
I wonder if Farley had any inkling of what he was starting when he created The Black Stallion? :roll:
I believe there was an earlier Seabiscuit movie, too.
Yes, it was made in the 40s or therebouts. Terrible. Shirley Temple was the “star”.
I noticed that Seabiscuit the movie is rated PG-13. Would someone who has seen the movie be willing to elaborate a bit? (You can do it in a private message or email if you wish.) I have a couple-weeks-shy-of-nine-year-old who has seen the Lord of the Rings movies (after reading all the books) and handled that just fine. She LOVES all animals, including horses, and I’m wondering if this movie would be ok for her. I know; I need to go see it myself alone and decide – but first I thought I’d elicit some opinions.
P.S. I was also a big fan of the Black Stallion books as a child. I discovered them while visiting my grandparents one summer. I stayed in my aunt’s old room, which was still full of her stuff, and there was a shelf full of Black Stallion books. I devoured several that vacation, and then found them in my local library when I got home.
Sarah
I assume that the rating is due to a very few “cuss words” - G–D—, and milder, that I recall- if I remember correctly during or after one of the boxing matches- and perhaps on a few other occasions. Nothing like is unfortunately so common in most movies. I assume this was partially due to the time setting of the movie- when such language was not accepted, and rightly so, in polite company.
The only instance of , and I hate to even call it nudity, was a woman’s bare back, and a vague implication of a sexual nature, but nothing like what is commonplace during “prime time” on network TV.
I was always very picky about what my girls watched as kids, and I would have no problem with this movie.
I even commented to a friend at work that it was unusual to go to a movie that I would not be embarassed to see with anyone.
Just read that Charles Frazier’s stunning novel
‘Cold Mountain,’ will be released as a film before long,
with Nicole Kidman and Jude Law.
The novel concerns a wounded deserter from the
Confederate army
as he makes his way back to his home across
a disentegrating South. The novel is very beautiful,
rather an American classic, and it reads like a
screen play. Yes, there will be horses…
I remember Cold Mountain. If the movie folks don’t mess it up, that could be a good one- it’s a great book.
Release Date: December 25th, 2003 (pushed back from the fall of 2002; first aiming for 2001)
Distributor: Miramax Films
Distributor Note: (10/29/02) MGM had been attached to codistribute this film with Miramax (taking the international rights while Miramax did the U.S.), but they’ve dropped out, leaving Miramax with this big-budget ($80 million) project all their own. It’s quite possible Miramax will find another partner… maybe Paramount or Universal.
Production Company: Mirage Enterprises
Cast: Jude Law (Inman), Nicole Kidman (Ada), Renee Zellweger (Ruby Thewes), Jen Apgar (Dolly), Eileen Atkins (Maddy), Kathy Baker, Lucas Black (Oakley), Emily Deschanel, James Gammon, Brendan Gleeson (Stobrod), Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Hunnam, Jena Malone, Taryn Manning (Shyla), Mark Jeffrey Miller (Sheffield), Robin Mullins (Mrs. Castlereagh), Natalie Portman (Sarah), Giovanni Ribisi, Ethan Suplee, Donald Sutherland, Melora Walters (Lila), Ray Winstone, Jack White (Georgie)
Anthony Minghella, who directed The English Patient, directs it.
One thing about the novel I pray they keep–music was
extraordinarily important in it, and one of the characters,
an alcohohlic, is redeemed by playing the fiddle. He makes
a fiddle with a rattlesnake’s rattle as part of the
soundbox.
This is a crossover movie for Jude Law, who is going to
play a leading man, not a weirdo. Best
Jim: Although I’ve heard of the book, I’ve never read it. I just may have to go out and get it now.
All the Best,
Tom
If I may add, Cormac McCarthy’s novel ‘All the Pretty Horses,’
was made into a movie a couple of years ago, with
Matt Damon and Penelope Cruz. It’s about two
young fellas from Texas who go for a long ride
in Mexico in the late 1940s. Billy Bob Thornton directed.
It’s out on DVD and video.
This has been confusing for me, because I thought this
was one of the best movies I had ever seen, and
I keep seeing it again, but the some of reviews were weak,
calling it lifeless, etc. I saw pure gold.
The movie is much about horses–it follows the
award winning novel and the extraordinary dialogue
is from the novel. It’s visually beautiful.
I thought it was an improvement
on the novel, because in the novel, where people
go on talking for pages, this gets shortened in
the movie, which is an improvement.
Thanks for the news Jim,
I’ll look forward to that one.
It is indeed a beautiful book. I’ve got my copy of “The Travels of William Bartram” sitting on a shelf here at work (except mine still has it’s cover.)
Mark V.