At One with Nature: Carroll Ballard’s One-Two Punch

Posted by Greg Ferrara on December 14, 2011

Sometimes an artist succeeds in a way that dooms every future effort. The success either places undue expectations upon the audience for the artist’s future works or, in the worst case scenario, upon the artist himself and no matter how hard he tries, he can never live up to the glory that was that early success. One such artist is director Carroll Ballard and after his first two feature-length films achieved a kind of cinematic communication with nature rarely seen in commercial films, every successive film of his was expected to top the last.

They never did.

But that shouldn’t matter. It shouldn’t matter that Ballard’s work after 1983, from Wind to Fly Away Home to Duma (with an adaptation of a stage performance of The Nutcracker Suite thrown in for good measure) is very good at best, lackluster at worst. What matters is this: In 1979 and 1983, Ballard directed The Black Stallion and Never Cry Wolf, two of the most beautiful and serene movies about the solitude to be found in and among nature ever produced. His filmography can end right there and we’d still owe him a great debt of gratitude and more than a good deal of praise.

The Black Stallion and Never Cry Wolf work together as companion pieces, one in which a boy is thrust into nature involuntarily and unprepared and the other in which a man enters nature willingly and prepared and, in both cases, survival is based upon abandoning preconceptions about nature and viewing it as is rather than through the eyes of humanity.

The Black Stallion begins with Alec Ramsey (Kelly Reno) and his father (Hoyt Axton) aboard a small luxury liner in 1946. While his father gambles in staterooms with men of various nationalities, Alec visits a horse being transported on the ship, restrained in a stable and bucking wildly. Alec is told to stay away by the handlers and retires to his stateroom. When his father returns, he gives Alec a pocket knife and a small statuette of a horse and tells him the tale of Bucephalus, the horse of Alexander the Great. In the middle of the night, Alec is awakened by sounds of explosions and fire and realizes the ship is sinking. Separated from his father, he sees the horse, tied up and in a panic, and cuts it loose with his pocket knife. The horse dives overboard and soon, Alec is hurled overboard as well.

Alec awakens to find himself on the beach of a deserted island and finds the horse trapped in the rocks, its reins tangled up and cutting into him. Alec once again frees him and, eventually, the two come to trust each other (the horse even saves Alec later from a cobra attack). Alec begins to refer to the horse as The Black.

The scenes on the island are remarkable for their restraint, in story and in style. Most scenes are quiet, with only the noise of the wind and the surf as accompaniment. The music by Carmine Coppola, when present, is quiet and studied, only breaking into unfettered glee when Alec first rides The Black across the beach. For the most part, though, it is quiet. There is no inner dialogue narrated by Alec and, most importantly, no dialogue with The Black. We are mercifully spared scenes where Alec unloads his feelings onto the ever-listening but never responding horse. What we are given, instead, is the understanding that these two have bonded, without any unnecessary dialogue to hammer the point home. And, importantly, the film gives us moments of Alec on the island, simply being. Not discovering new and exciting things. Not constructing a makeshift hut out of bamboo. Just being. It places Alec and The Black in a state of unadulterated nature and lets them exist in that state, free from the conventions of the world at large.

When Alec returns home, after a rescue by fisherman who happen upon him, he has trouble adjusting back to the concrete world and is taken under the wing of a mentor, an ex-jockey named Henry Dailey (Mickey Rooney, in a superb performance). Henry helps Alec understand The Black better than he ever could on his own and eventually trains Alec to ride The Black for sport. This exploitation of nature for the sake of man batters and bruises both Alec and The Black and, by the end, with both injured and exhausted, a return to nature beckons as the racing is abandoned and Alec and The Black can get back to that which brought them contentment in the first place, peaceful existence with nature and each other.

It’s an optimistic, upbeat ending to the story and the story itself is told in the gentlest of ways. It feels right, given that this story could be considered the lead-in to Never Cry Wolf, which goes from boy to man and upbeat to cynical and cautious. By the time Never Cry Wolf ends, there is distrust and disquiet and the uneasy feeling that unless we start paying attention to the world around us, it’s all going to slip through our fingers.

Loosely based on the 1963 autobiography of Farley Mowat, Never Cry Wolf tells the extraordinary story of a government biologist named Tyler (Charles Martin Smith in a tremendous performance) who has been dropped off in the Arctic by a colorful local pilot, Rosie (Brian Dennehy – terrific, of course) and assigned the impossible task of proving the local wolves have been destroying the caribou population. His method is simple: Find a wolf, shoot it and examine its stomach contents.

This proves fruitless as he can’t find one soon enough and when he does, he prefers observation to slaughter and examination. As he urinates to mark out his territory and the wolf he follows does the same, he begins his own bond with the wolves and how they live. Seeing as he can find no caribou remains, much less live caribou, he determines the wolves are not killing the caribou but rather, living off of small mammals in the area, particularly mice. He tests this hypothesis by surviving on nothing but mice himself.

He is also befriended by two Inuits, Ootek (Zachary Ittimangnaq) and Mike (Samson Jorah), who help him throughout the year as he acclimates to the arctic. Later, he does witness the wolves killing and eating caribou but, just like Ootek and Mike told him, they eat the sick and the old. The herd itself is in no way threatened by them.

It is here that the brilliance of Never Cry Wolf becomes apparent. The wide-eyed optimism of The Black Stallion becomes the hard, cynical truth here. Rosie returns with developers who are looking to buy up land to mass-market mineral water from the area. In their plane are the pelts of wolves. Tyler despises Rosie for this and when Rosie tries to return to take Tyler back, Tyler shoots at the plane and sends him off. But as much as Tyler would like to portray Rosie and his ilk as the villains against nature he discovers that Mike, too, hunts wolves. It’s a living and Mike needs the money. He readily admits he would shoot the wolves Tyler is studying, too, but he won’t only because he doesn’t want to anger Tyler. Later, it’s implied that maybe he killed them anyway.

What’s brilliant about all of this is how both Rosie and Mike are presented. In both cases, Tyler is charmed by them and befriends them only to be disillusioned later. When that disillusionment happens, it’s not because Rosie and Mike have dramatically changed but because Tyler sees them from a new perspective, one they can’t quite understand. The movie walks a fine line in which the perceived enemies of nature are not caricatured, scorched-earth adherents but, rather, regular people doing things to make a living that they find acceptable and fair but others, like Tyler, find abhorrent.

The Black Stallion and Never Cry Wolf would bring praise and accolades to Carroll Ballard but he would never again reach such heights. The quiet grace of those two films and their understated views of humanity and nature belong in a category by themselves, relinquished from the prison of cuddly animal genre pieces, where they usually get dumped, instead of the serious and thoughtful meditations on nature they are.

Before Tyler is led out of the wilderness by Ootek, he writes a statement in his diary that could describe both movies and their quiet and peaceful communion with nature:

“In the end there were no simple answers. No heroes. No villains. Only silence.”

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18 Responses At One with Nature: Carroll Ballard’s One-Two Punch

Posted By Richard Harland Smith : December 14, 2011 12:00 pm

All I really remember about Never Cry Wolf is the mouse smoothie. I wish I could forget that… but I can’t.

Posted By Greg Ferrara : December 14, 2011 2:49 pm

Never forget. Mice are full protein. That’s good.

Posted By Kingrat : December 14, 2011 4:50 pm

Great piece, Greg. Sometimes a great film (novel, painting, etc.) closes a path rather than opening one. Jean Eustache and THE MOTHER AND THE WHORE is one example.

Posted By Greg Ferrara : December 14, 2011 5:21 pm

I’ve never seen that one, Kingrat, but know it’s considered his best, of the short filmography he had.

Posted By saraeg : December 14, 2011 7:16 pm

I love the movies WIND and FLY AWAY HOME. I have watched both numerous times and found something magical in learning about the wind and how humans try to harness its power. The young girl learns about her father and nature and grows up to understand life a little better after she loses her mother in a car accident. I will be sure to watch for any upcoming Carroll Ballard film in the future because of this post.

Posted By Jonah : December 14, 2011 8:48 pm

Thank you for this welcome appreciation of a neglected filmmaker. “Fly Away Home” is a worthy follow up to these two films, I think. And I think one of the great virtues of “The Black Stallion” is its often dense and always inventive sound design by Alan Splet. It’s one of the early Dolby soundtracks, one that isolates, treats, and weaves dozens of discrete sounds to create what used to be called a “hyperrealistic” sound space. This is evident even in the less showy scenes, though the climatic race sequence is one of Splet’s masterpieces (up there with parts of “Days of Heaven” and “Eraserhead”).

Just as good as the features are Ballard’s several short films made before “The Black Stallion,” which are no longer in circulation (many used to be shown regularly in schools, back when every classroom had a 16mm projector). Most of these shorts deal with nature, particular animals. They also presage the features in their style. For example, “Rodeo” has a dense soundtrack and a virtuosic mix of close and long shots and lenses of many lengths that looks an awful lot like the climax of “Black Stallion” (both films were shot by Caleb Deschanel). Somebody should get around to releasing these — not that I can imagine a big market for them, when even Ballard’s features appear to have been largely forgotten.

Posted By Tom S : December 14, 2011 10:10 pm

There’s something about an honest movie about mankind’s relationship with animals or a particular animal that can lend it a really special power- though I think that power is sometimes (often) used to crappy, manipulative ends. When used well, though, you get everything from these two to Herzog’s Grizzly Man to The Rules of the Game (in which the cast’s relationship to the animal world plays a small but crucial role in the movie’s picture of humanity as a whole.)

Posted By Greg Ferrara : December 14, 2011 10:20 pm

Saraeg – I don’t do it often but I edited my post to change “average” to “very good” in describing Wind and Fly Away Home because, actually, I like those two very much (saw Wind in the theatre with around three other people in the whole place). The reason I don’t rank them higher is because I’m comparing them to Black Stallion and Never Cry Wolf which I consider to operate on a whole other level. They really are movies that achieve a zen state. They’re meditations, especially Never Cry Wolf. I highly recommend both.

Posted By Greg Ferrara : December 14, 2011 10:25 pm

Jonah – Thanks for calling attention to the race and its use of sound. I’m always kind of stunned by the finale of The Black Stallion on a purely technical level. The tracking shots of Alec and The Black, as well as the following shots behind them as they catch up to the two front runners, are truly breathtaking. The sound of the horse, isolated from all else, works magic.

I’d love to see some of those shorts one day. My two dvds of Black Stallion and Never Cry Wolf are pretty old. I got them over ten years ago when they were first released because I love both movies so much. They’re so old they still have the option to watch full-screen or wide-screen. Maybe new anniversary or blu-ray editions will have the shorts on them.

Posted By Greg Ferrara : December 14, 2011 10:31 pm

Tom – Werner Herzog is surprisingly adept at connecting with nature, from Aguirre, the Wrath of God to Fitzcaraldo to Grizzly Man, his works connect to it in a more head-on collision way than the meditative way of Ballard, with equally impressive results.

And yes, most people don’t think about the nature connection in Rules of the Game but the gamekeeper, the rabbits, the poachers, are all very important in telling its story and making connections between that and the humanity at odds with itself on the grounds. What a great movie. I’ve got to watch it again soon.

Posted By Tom S : December 14, 2011 10:39 pm

I think Herzog’s relationship with nature works well because it’s so unusual, without being dishonest- as much as I love Attenborough-style nature documentaries (and it’s a lot) it’s useful to have it shoved in your face that nature isn’t for us- that every assumption we make about it should be based on the knowledge that it’s totally alien and, from our viewpoint, utterly hostile. What I find fascinating is that, even starting at that viewpoint, that nature is as cruel and obscene as any human crime, Herzog still finds it irresistibly fascinating. As, indeed, he does human crime.

Posted By Tom S : December 14, 2011 10:41 pm

And yeah, it’s always time to watch Rules of the Game again. I haven’t watched my new blu ray copy yet, I really ought to.

Posted By saraeg : December 14, 2011 10:43 pm

Greg – I understood how you were comparing the movies. The Black Stallion is one of my favorite films because of all the aspects you pointed out. I am always sitting on the edge of my seat at the end when the race is run. I know how it ends, but how it was filmed and especially with the sound of the hooves and the leather saddle on the horse and he gallops to the finish line, I am in tears and the only other time this has happened for a horse race is when Secretariat won – ahead of the pack by 17 lengths. (Same thing?) I have watched Never Cry Wolf only once. It is hard for me being such an animal lover that I could only go through that experience once. Your post is written very well and I enjoyed reading it. That is why I am eager to see Mr. Ballard’s other films.

Posted By Greg Ferrara : December 15, 2011 12:51 am

Tom – I got a great anniversary edition of Rules… about a year ago now but haven’t watched it again yet. Soon, though.

Herzog understands that brutality can be fascinating if looked at in a primal state and not some phonied up gratuitous violence state. The brutality of nature, which in Aguirre is simply the vastness of the earth against one man and a lot of monkeys after everyone else has died, is fascinating because it is so utterly indifferent to all of our designs.

Posted By Greg Ferrara : December 15, 2011 12:55 am

Saraeg – Never Cry Wolf is kind of hard to watch at times, it’s true. It doesn’t shy away from the harsh realities of animals in the wild and the world they share with man. I don’t know if Carroll Ballard will make any more movies at this point. He may be retired after just six feature films. But you know, for as short a list of films as that is, it’s still got more impressive films in it than most directors with 50 films to their credit.

Posted By Kingrat : December 15, 2011 6:49 pm

The mention of DAYS OF HEAVEN reminds me that Malick is another director of whom great things were expected after BADLANDS and DAYS OF HEAVEN. For whatever reason, we got a long absence before his return to filmmaking.

There’s also the curious case of Alain Jessua, whose first film LIFE UPSIDE DOWN (1965) I’ve just seen. Critics greeted it rapturously, which isn’t surprising. I haven’t seen his other films, although the second. JEU DE MASSACRE (THE KILLING GAME, aka COMIC STRIP HERO) also was well-received. Then only eight more films over a long timespan, most of them Horror Lite or SF Lite, according to what I’ve read. LIFE UPSIDE DOWN is the only one I’ve seen.

Greg, thanks for these posts on Schaffner and Ballard. The films that made us care about them are still as good as ever. And do see THE MOTHER AND THE WHORE if you possibly can.

Posted By saraeg : December 15, 2011 10:17 pm

Greg – I agree that the small list of movies that Mr. Ballard made are wonderful. I would have a problem watching Duma also, even knowing that there is a happy ending. When I was younger, it was easier to watch the nature films (Born Free, National Geographic, etc.) I don’t know if I saw the Nutcracker. I have seen a few. No one notable in this film for me to get a memory going. I may be old enough to have seen the short films that Jonah posted about. Elementary school had plenty of 16mm movie projectors! Since it is the holiday season, I will keep my eyes open for the Nutcracker.

Posted By Juana Maria : December 20, 2011 1:11 pm

I have loved the film “The Black Stallion” since I was a little girl. I didn’t notice all the arsty stuff about films until I was older. I love foreigh languages, music, animals, the arts. All of this goes into my appreciation of film now that I am an adult. Muchas gracias! Thankyou TCM for bringing us such quality movies from around the world and throughout the years. P.S. I also love the movies “Born Free” and “Black Beauty”. When I was little all black horses were “black beauty” to me.

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