Lightning, the White Stallion (1986) User Reviews

looks like a pump, works like a sneaker!

[windypoplar · 4/10 · 6 October 2005]

I give this movie a 4 of ten and I'm being pretty generous. This was done to capitalize on the success of the Black Stallion movies and series with Mickey Rooney. Unfortunately its just not very good. Isabel Lorca is gorgeous girl but she couldn't act her way out of a paper sack! Rooney is OK, but he plot is really poorly thought out. Very little of this movie feels real, it feels like play someone was staging on Saturday afternoon. The most believable moments are between Stephanie (Lorca) and her boyfriend on the bus! Even the climax feels contrived and manipulative. If your'e looking for a decent family flick for a rainy afternoon, you could do worse, but not by much.

Oddly rated "pg" for some profanity and adult situations that seem rather at odds with the rest of the film.

Horse movie

[BandSAboutMovies · 3/10 · 19 March 2022]

I can't find this movie anywhere, but I'm petty mindblown by the fact that this children's movie was written by Harry Alan Towers, a man who not only was part of an alleged vice ring with Stephen Ward, Peter Lawford and the Soviet Union, but also the producer and writer of severall Jess Franco movies including 99 Women, The Girl From Rio and Venus In Furs.

The husband of Maria Rohm may not be the first person I'd choose to write a kid movie about horses, but then again, I'd probably not think to hire William A. Levey, who made Wam Bam Thank You Spaceman, Blackenstein and Skatetown U. S. A. Either.

Then again, if only for the sake of having several obsessions of mine in the cast, I wonder if this movie was made just for me. I mean. Murray Langsdon and Susan George are in this.

Barney Ingram's (Mickey Rooney) prize stallion Cloverdale III has been stolen by creditor Emmett Fallon, but the horse runs away and two kids end up with it and name it Lightning. Also, the girl is going blind like a Melvins song. Or maybe not. I don't know, any time Mickey Rooney shows up I'm reminded how much he hated Silent Night, Deadly Night and then ended up starring in Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toymaker.

Well, at least the horse looked good.

[SanDiego · 5 April 2000]

Lame is not a word someone wants to hear when talking about horses, but this horse film is very lame. Being a fan of both Mickey Rooney and horse pictures I thought this might have been a half way decent film capitalizing on the extremely well done Black Stallion films and TV series in which Mickey Rooney starred. Nope. Even by rip-off standards does this film come close to be much more than a waste of time. I've seen at least fifty a-girl-and-her-horse (and boy-and-his-horse) pictures ranging from old MGM B-pictures to numerous Disney outings and I've enjoyed them all. Canadian and Australian efforts usually are quiet good with this genre. The stallion and Mickey Rooney are great but the plot and dialogue is so terrible the film is better watched with the sound turn down. Murray Langston, the former "Unknown Comic" shows up as a school bus driver and actually gives one of the better performances. That should tell you something.

The worst horse movie ever

[oneandonly_jenn · 1/10 · 7 March 2002]

And I've seen some bad ones. Aside from the dialog being hokey, the plot being full of holes, the acting was stiff and unreal... I don't even know where to start. I was particularly amused at the fact that the main 'stallion' was portrayed by at least 4 different horses that were not even the same color (watchers can thrill to the feeling of the magical color changing horse!) Yes, the base color was always white, but did they really think we were dumb enough to mistake a 17+ hand warmblood dark dapple grey, a cremello pony (who I believe was a mare) a fleabitten grey horse, and a cream horse as all the same animal??? And the cut scenes were horrible. Were they supposed to show tension? action? I was confused as they showed several different horses and riders, all supposedly the same horse! The riders were wearing different color clothes! The main girl couldn't ride, her 'trainer' couldn't ride, and I'm almost ashamed of Mickey Rooney for being in this stinker! He must have needed the money badly. Avoid this one. If you want to see an uplifting horse movie, go rent Sylvester.

Don't Pay Money To See This Stinker

[auwhite · 1/10 · 30 September 2006]

I cannot believe that anyone could have payed money to see this movie. The repulsive acting from everyone (including Mme. Rene) was unbelievably horrible. First of all, the movie was rated PG but really should have been rated NC-17 because of the wardrobe malfunctions in the scene where Isabelle Lorca is sitting with her mother and stepfather in the dining room table and storms off. Maybe these producers didn't even have enough money to buy their characters bras, but then couldn't she have gotten a non-see-through shirt? It was absolutely disgusting. The whole movie, the obvious horse changes, the obvious terrible stunt changes, and the strange song made the movie impossible to watch. After seeing this sucker, my friends and I decided to make fun of it, which is really the only purpose that this movie could have possibly been made for. Also the actors looked like they had been chosen off the street. Lucas Mitchell and Stephanie Ward were positively the most ugly people who could have been in this movie. Talk about a small budget. I feel so bad for Mikey Rooney because he was in this terrible (I don't know if you could even call it a movie) movie. DO NOT SEE THIS MOVIE unless you have a garbage can near you to throw up in.

Probably the worst movie I've ever seen

[A-movie-lover-H · 1/10 · 29 September 2006]

Probably the worst movie I've ever seen, and, having seen many movies from all different times and genres, this is a big insult. First of all, Isabel Lorca's incredibly bad French accent makes it very hard to understand what she is saying, and terrible performances by all of the actors. Also, the editing is the worst in the world. There are about 500 obvious switches of the horse, from albinos, to Arabians, dapple grays, etc. Plus, what was with the song? "You're the Lightning in my eyes, you lift me up, you bring me high!!" Also, the stunt doubles that they got were very bad. She looked like her neck was snapping back, especially when she was jumping for Mme. Rene. Also, the plot with her stepfather was completely ridiculous, as was her going blind, since both those plots went absolutely NOWHERE!!! It was as though someone got to lazy too shoot the rest of the movie. Plus, Lucas Mitchell was very ugly. Just a note. Mickey Rooney must have been in a very bad place to do this movie. DO NOT SEE IT! Unless you want to mock it, like me and my friends, in which case go right ahead, and rent it for a long time, since you'll want to watch it over and over again, you'll be laughing so hard at it! And I will agree with auwhite that it was indeed very disturbing when, let's just say, certain aspects of her wardrobe were missing, and that part of her body was sticking right out in front of the camera. (GROSS!)

The Greatest Movie of Our Time...

[cl_baldwin · 10/10 · 15 December 2011]

...if you can appreciate the flaws. It is a minefield of errors, misinformation, and terrible acting. Where to start? There are at least 7 different horses used as "Lightning" and all of them are clearly different. One of the best games is to drink whenever a new "Lightning" shows up on screen. He changes from an Arab to a lame horse to a Lipizzaner to a Thoroughbred. It's amazing! Couple that with editing that a blind person would be ashamed to claim: the clothing changes from angle to angle, the HORSES change in mid-jump, and people actually change places from cut to cut. On top of all of this wonder, the writers outdid themselves by writing a completely implausible storyline and the actors manage to deliver the lines in as wooden and unbelievable manner as possible.

The best way to watch this is with friends playing the following drinking game:

Have a drink every time: Lightning is obviously a different horse There is a blatant editing error (fill your drinks before the horse show scenes!) Mickey Rooney overacts Stephanie says something ridiculous Lucas brushes off a bitchy comment by Stephanie Stephanie walks around without a bra even though her shirt is see-through

Bonus Chug: when Stephanie jumps the gate in slow-motion, chug your drink!

Sorry, but with these rules, you'll be drunk within 30 minutes, which is the state you need to be in to enjoy this beauty.

Drab family film

[Wizard-8 · 11 December 2011]

With Mickey Rooney in the cast, and a title that in part reads "...the White Stallion", it is pretty obvious that the makers of this movie were trying to cash in on the success of "The Black Stallion". Unfortunately, this movie fails in just about every aspect that you can think of. While Rooney may be top-billed, he only has a limited amount of footage, and he doesn't exactly give a memorable performance. Speaking of a limited performance, the title horse actually spends most of the second half of the movie offscreen. And the treatment of the horse when it is on screen is nothing special; even kids will wonder why this horse is considered so special. The movie shows some signs of problems behind the scenes, with various plot threads (like the heroine's failing eyesight) being dropped or wrapped up extremely quickly. The movie is nicely photographed, but the drab southern California locations aren't that much enhanced by it. In short, this is another loser movie from producer Harry Alan Towers.

GOOD CLEAN CLASSIC FILM

[whpratt1 · 10/10 · 14 September 2002]

Susan George and Mickey Rooney gave an excellent performance and Susan's love of horses made it very enjoyable. A great film, because it was pure and a sweet story and relaxing to watch. Susan George showed her age from Illness, but still gave a great performance.

classic

[lulu-2007 · 28 July 2011]

I have watched this movie when I was younger and loved it and decided to watch it again recently. I was a bit surprised to see such negative reviews for this movie, since it does have good acting and is a good plot. At the same time I can definitely understand some of the negative reviews on here this is an extremely cheesy movie. Comparing graphics and other things to today's graphics. I do think this is a great family movie and has a very good plot and has a mix of different things that people can enjoy. If you're like me and can easily look past bad graphics and effects and love a heart warming plot then go for it, but if your like my fiancé and get too hooked on bad graphics and some some "cheese" then I would not recommend this movie.

This movie is a pile of horse pucky

[juniperhurricane · 16 August 2005]

Delightfully cheesy horse pucky, though. I agree wholeheartedly with the other reviewer--the use of stock footage of several different horses doesn't fool anyone! Not to mention the glaring continuity error--children under the age of 18 are NOT allowed to show stallions at almost all rated or USA Equestrian sanctioned horse shows. This movie is not entirely without its redeeming points though. There's a superb line of dialogue where Girl Rider wishes Bad Guy Competition Rider "Good luck" as he rides into the arena. He sneers at her and says, "When you're as GOOD as i am, you don't NEED luck." heh. awesome. I would love to get all of my barn buddies together and watch this while drinking alcoholic beverages.