It's not. It's a cheap Australian 70's movie produced by Walt Disney.
The premise is that a young boy thinks a disabled girl stole his pony to pull her cart and then there's a legal battle. It's based on the book A Sporting Proposition.
If it turns out that the girl wins the case, this is just liberal propaganda about the value of redistribution through government force.
The movie starts with a boy named Scottie stealing a pony from a rancher named Mr. Ellison and riding away. The music is pretty good and tricks me into thinking this could be a good movie
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| This takes place in Australia |
The pony deposits Scottie into a lake and Mr. Ellison calls a policeman to go to Scott's father. The policeman orders Scottie to stay away from the ponies and to go back to school.
Clearly, Disney wants us to sympathize with the father, who wants his son to work on the farm and learn useful skills, and not the policeman, who wants Scottie to go to a government indoctrination public school.
Scott's father, Mr. Pirie, goes to a solicitor named Chase Quayle and explains that Scott used to ride on a friend's horse to school, but the friend moved. Scott would have to walk seven miles to school each day. Now he wants to sue the school.
The eventual conflict will be whether the pony will go to the disabled girl or Scott.
get it? Because people who go to public school are sheep.
Quayle tells government official Mr. Strapp that Mr. Pirie wants to sue New South Wales for not providing education for his son.
Strapp suggests that Mr. Pirie should just stop being poor. Quayle replies that he bought government land that wasn't fertile. He implies that he will bring to light fraudulent purchase and sale of infertile land.
Boy, kids wanting to watch a Disney movie about ponies were probably really disappointed when they first five minutes were about the fertility of land and government corruption.
Maybe there will be a twist at the end where Scottie is Mrs. Pirie's son and her brother.
The government's solution is to give the Pirie's a pony as a gift. Mr. Pirie insists that he pay for it because he doesn't want any government hand-outs.
So what Disney is trying to say is "If you want a pony, skip school."
Scottie decides to Ride A Government Pony (1975) around until Disney has enough footage for a musical. He decides to race a train and cut over the tracks.
Kids, don't cross train tracks,
Scottie reaches school and everyone goes up to pet his pony. So the kids are jealous of the person who has the government-issued pony?
The pony breaks out of the (un)stable during class. This is what happens when you let the government do things.
At the Quayle's house, the daughter, Jeannie, dislikes Scottie because he smells. Mrs. Quayle remarks that Scottie can't bathe because they don't have running water.
Disney tackles classism in this movie. The son, Kit, snarks to Jeannie that she just goes to Josie Ellison in her big rich house.
Josie is the disabled girl. She yells at her father because her horse isn't getting enough exercise. it's refreshing that the disabled girl is also the spoiled brat. Do you know how rare that is?
Josie tries to not go to town with her father, but he convinces her. She refuses to get out of the car. She snaps back at Jeannie when she tries to talk to her.
Damn, this movie is pretty impressive so far. Of all the family movies I've seen, this one actually has characters that don't feel manufactured to be likeable. The child acting is decent as well. Good job, Disney.
Mr. Quayle and a shopkeeper watch Josie.
Shopkeeper
How long ago was that, ah, infantile paralysis
Mr. Quayle
It was two years ago. You know, she's a year younger than my daughter. You wouldn't think so, would you?
Sure, this seems like clumsy exposition, but at least the shopkeeper mentions that it's been a long time since they've seen Josie in town. But it would have been more natural if they revealed this at the trial.
Scottie rides his pony through a store and back to racing the train. The conductor yells that the train is going too quickly for him to cross the tracks and Scott falls into the lake instead.
Is this supposed to represent the race between new and old technology? What is Disney trying to say with this cheap '70s movie nobody has heard of?
This is a Disney movie with less than 150 votes on IMDB.
Scottie rides to the Quayle house and gives them a some manure as a "legal fee." I'm above making a joke about that.
The next day, Scottie notices that his pony is gone.
Hey, remember that scene earlier where the pony could easily break down the stable at the school? Scottie doesn't remember it.
Scottie walks around and calls for his pony, padding out the movie. The pony's name is Taff.
There's a lot of padding in this movie, but the padding is somewhat visually appealing.
Josie attempts to go out riding without stirrups, but her parents say she can't because of her balance.
I love how they parents aren't angry at their stock man. Like "Hey, you almost let our daughter do that thing she isn't allowed to do because we think she will get hurt or die, but that's okay."
Scottie gets to school. On time.
He woke up thinking he was going to ride to school, wandered around looking for Taff, and then walked seven miles to school and got there on time?
The kids at school try to figure out where Taff went. One boy suggest that he fell into the river, but Scottie insists that Taff wouldn't go near the river.
So the scenes in the forest where Taff stopped and deposited Scottie in the water actually served a purpose. Sorry for doubting Disney.
Kit approaches Scottie to help with farm chores. In this town, people just show up at other people's house. Kit suggests that someone could have found Taff and sold him, which prompts Scottie to go to the horse marketplace.
...By hitching a ride with this guy.
Honestly?
Scottie looks around the market for his government-issued pony and doesn't find it.
Mrs. Pirie goes to the Quayles' and reveals that Scottie has run away, and Mr. Pirie went to the police. Mr. Quayle calls Mr. Ellison in case Scottie is there.
Mrs. Ellison asks Mr. Ellison is he can ask if Jeannie can have tea with Josie, as she doesn't have enough to do. Luckily, Josie has somehow gotten on the pony that she wasn't supposed to ride.
Which is something to do.
Josie falls off the pony and doesn't die. She tells her parents that she won't use the wheelchair anymore.
Kids, if you don't get what you want, just disobey your parents.
A man named Louis comes with a horse-drawn cart for Josie. Josie just needs a pony.
"I don't want one that's broken already... He'll be my pony. And I want to start from scratch. He won't do anything except pull my cart."
I love Josie's character. It's like she's a few feet from the brink of sociopathy.
Josie direct Louis chase the ponies around and train them with a sadistic smile.
Josie chooses the pony who has the most trouble following orders.
I wonder who the pony is,
Mr. Ellison warns Josie that the pony might give her trouble.
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| "I don't care. I want him." |
Somehow, Disney made a creepier child character than Sarah.
Josie attempts to train Bow, her name for Taff. She rejects Louis' suggestion to give him a carrot, because she doesn't want to spoil him
Josie
I'm not going to hurt you.
Louis puts the two handles of the cart on Bow. Bow starts running around with the pen and eventually the handles fall off.
Clearly Josie is connecting Bow's freedom from the handles with her freedom from the wheelchair.
Or she's just a sociopath.
Bow bites Josie
Josie
It wasn't a bite. It was just a joke.
Based on information he obtained from the market, Scottie tracks down a man who bought a Welsh pony. The man tells Scottie that the pony is behind a tree,
I wish I had grown up watching these sort of kid's movies.
Josie watches with amusement as Louis and the other rancher struggle to lead Bow/Taff to a new cart.
Bow/Taff refuses to move until Mr. Ellison strikes him with a switch and Louis rides off. When they return, Josie complains that Mr. Ellison cut Bow/Taff's mouth.
Looking a stolen government-issued horse in the mouth.
Sometime later. they decide Josie is able to ride in the cart by herself. Despite her parent's over-protectiveness. Josie looks happy and somehow that makes her even creepier.
Scottie returns home and his father whips him, I love this movie.
He goes to school and his teacher yells at him.
He goes to a grainery and the owner taunts him. So Scottie picks up a knife and slits a bag of grain, then runs away.
Why is this not a classic Disney kid's movie again? It's amazing.
Josie rides her pony around and her father says he will enter her in a carnival contest for Best Pony and Buggy and asks whether she thinks she will win.
Josie: Bow will win anything.
Notice how Josie changes the subject from herself to Bow. Clearly, Josie has some deep-seated (pun intended) depression from her polio.
At the carnival, Scottie and Kit ride a carousel. Pretty clever. Scottie spots Taff/Bow and runs up to him. Josie yells at him to go away. Mr. Ellison grabs Scottie and almost kills Josie. The Police grab Scottie and puts him on the motorcycle.
All of this is fairly rough for a kid's movie.
The police deposit Scottie back home and tell him that he will be locked up if he goes back to the pony again.
Scottie almost kills a paralyzed girl and he gets off with a warning? About the pony? He can go near Josie?
1975 was odd.
At dinner, Mr. Quayle guesses that Josie would win a court case because "possession is 9/10 of the law."
This movie is educational as well.
Kit tells Scottie this and that Mr. Ellison found the pony in a wild herd. He hypothesizes that Taff crossed the river and joined the herd. Scottie insists that Taff wouldn't do that.
Way to argue against your own case, kid.
But good on this movie for establishing that Taff dislike crossing the river early on.
Josie finds that the gate to the pony enclosure is open and that Bow is gone. Naturally, she assumes Scottie stole him, so Mr. Ellison and a policeman go to the Pirie farm. The policeman threatens to take Mr. Pirie and Scottie in if he finds that they are hiding Bow.
How will he know if it is really Bow? Mr. Pirie makes them leave.
Josie stares solemnly at the cart and this is a perfect shot for the cover of a horror movie.
Mr. Ellison looks at Josie worryingly. For good reason.
The kids at school gossip over where Bow/Taff is. Someone brings Scottie to school in a cart.
Hold on.
How did he get another pony to bring him to school? Wasn't that the entire point of the government giving him Taff?
Mr. Quayle brings Scottie to his office and demands that Scottie brings the pony in to school. He tells Scottie that he has to learn to trust authority because this is the obligatory 3rd act mentor scene.
Scottie rides Taff/Bow into town and the children follow him. The adults gossip over who owns the pony and whether Scottie should be locked up.
This town must be really, really small if this is the most exciting thing to happen.
Scottie rides the pony into a pen and Josie insists it is Bow.
Louis attempts to touch the pony's head, but the pony pulls back. Kit mentions that Taff used to do that.
Louis attempts to look the stolen pony in the mouth, but the pony closes it's jaw. Josie remarks that that seems more like Bow.
So far, they've established that the pony acts like a pony.
Mr. Ellison puts a harness around Taff/Bow and Scottie runs to attack.
It would be funny if this is just a random pony they found and was neither Taff nor Bow.
Or if Taff and Bow were actually different ponies.
Kit tries to tells Scottie that the police won't takes Taff away because his father won't let them.
Damn it, Scottie.
Mr. Ellison brings Taff/Bow to Josie and the pony recognizes her
Why is this relevant to whether Scottie originally owned the pony?
The police bring Taff/Bow to the pound. Kit informs Scottie that Mr. Ellison is suing him for ownership of the pony.
Why is Kit the one telling Scottie this?
Mr. Ellison and Louis bring Josie to the pound and Josie tries to pet the pony.
So both Josie and Scottie are allowed to go to the pound whenever they like?
The pony backs off and Josie falls. She yells at her father when he puts her back in her chair. Taff/Bow lets Josie pet him.
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| "Don't you tell me that that pony doesn't know her." |
Whether the pony knows Josie is entirely irrelevant and not debatable.
Later, Scottie has difficulty interacting with Taff and the townsfolk watch.
The town convenes at a bar and argue over who owns the horse. Louis's first argument is:
"And I say it's Josie's. Well, if it wasn't, why did it wail when we brought it in,"
I love how everyone in the town acts as if the case rests on whom the pony likes more. Australian property laws must be strange.
Some men argue that Scottie doesn't own the pony because the pony wasn't shod. I learned that shod means the horse has horseshoes.
One man argues that Josie owns the pony because she is crippled.
First of all, I love how Disney dropped in "crippled" 1975...
Second, this is some dangerously Marxist stuff for a Disney movie.
There's a brief bar fight. Why isn't this a more popular children's movie?
Despite the lawsuit, the pound lets Scottie feed Taff/Bow whenever he wants..
Mr. Ellison and Josie stop by. Mr. Ellison criticizes Scottie for overfeeding the pony and suggests he feeds it oats and chard.
Scottie retorts that the pony doesn't like oats and Josie backs him up.
For a brief second, it looks like Josie and Scottie have some sort of connection. Then Josie yells at Scottie for pulling on the pony's mane.
I love this movie.
Time for the courtroom scene, with thirty minutes left. The Ellisons carry Josie to the bench.
If the property rights of this bizarre towen are dependant on need, wouldn't they want Josie in her wheelchair?
Or do they want to show that she can't move without the wheelchair?
Kit sneaks away from school to see the trial.
Mr. Strapp (from the beginning of the movie) represents Josie, and Quayle represents Scottie.
The trial starts off great. Strapp says "this pony" and Quayle immediately pops up to say "a pony". So we've established that the case is over whether Bow and Taff are the same pony.
But the first argument that Strapp gives is that Josie was paralyzed and needs the pony.
Which is irrelevant.
The man who originally caught the pony from the wild comes to the stand. He testifies that the pony in the pound is not Pirie's. Mr. Ellison asks whether he made any measurements or notes about the pony, and he responds that all Welsh ponies look alike.
Which is specieist.
Strapp calls Josie to the stand, and Mr. Ellison carries her up. The judge asks whether she want to sit on a chair, and Josie says no.
Josie testifies that the pony is hers. She knows this because:
"I know my mother is my mother. And my father is my father. And I know Bow is Bow."
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| "She makes a convincing argument" |
Josie testifies that the pony in the pound never hurt her, never bit her, and came to her when she called him "Bow".
Strapp: Did you ever see the pony in the pound bite anyone?
Josie: Yes...him!
Josie is now my favorite disabled character is any kid's movie ever.
Strapp: What would you do if you lost [the pony] forever?
Josie: I'd die.
Josie is now my favorite character in any kid's movie ever.
Quayle points out that the pony wasn't a biter at Josie's home, but the pony in the pound is.
Josie: That's because he liked everyone at home. But he doesn't like him.
Josie is now my favorite character in any movie ever.
Lunch break. The Pirie's and the Ellisons eat across from each other. Jeannie and Kit gossip over who owns the pony.
After lunch, Scottie testifies that the pony in the pound is Taff. However, the pony in the pound didn't always come when called Taff and often bit him.
Scottie recovers by claiming that Taff also bit him. Then Scottie admits that he hit Taff with his hand.
Josie deserves the pony because Scottie is completely incompetent. Also, if Josie loses, she might snap and kill someone.
Just look at her face.
Quayle asks Scottie what whether he would want another pony if he loses Taff. Scottie says no.
So if Scottie loses, he'll be without a pony.
If Josie loses, she says will die.
Clearly, they should choose Scottie.
Quayle declares that neither side could possibly prove to whom the pony belongs, so they should let the pony decide.
You know, this movie has been great in being grounded in reality. They they go and bring a pony into court in the final fifteen minutes. Damn it.
Quayle invokes something about British Common Law. Really.
A spectator jokes that they should make the pony take the oath. He should have said "We should make the pony take the oats"
Quayle objects to this because he doesn't want the court turned into a laughing-stock, and I don't know whether that is an intentional pun.
Quayle uses some sort of British common law to suggest that they put the pony in a field and have Josie and Scottie call it. Whomever it goes to will own the pony.
They agree,
Judge
Well, I suppose it is a fair, sporting proposition
That's the title!
People at the bar takes bets on whom the pony will pick. This is what happens when you have a small town with no racetrack
The people at school also bet on the outcome. This girl bets Scottie her new bike.
Without saying what she wants in return. Whatever.
Josie stops Kit after school and asks which way he bet. Then she announces that if she doesn't win, she'll never come to the town again and will never speak to anyone else again.
If I were Kit, that seems like a win-win situation.
Scottie asks Kit whether Josie always has to be in a wheelchair. Despite seeing her at the trial, Kit affirms this.
Scottie: Well, I don't care.
There's nothing in the town to do but watch this contest. The judge confiscates the bridle and puts it under the chair. Performance enhancing noise.
The Judge announces that this is a court of law. When he drops his handkerchief, the pony will be released
The pony is released and he walks towards both of hem with the music fitting for the climax of an epic trilogy.
It even goes into the horses point of view.
Eventually, Taff chooses Scottie.
YES!
If the movie ended now, it would be absolutely amazing. Unfortunately, there are still four minutes left.
Josie looks sad. She's going to do some revenge plot, isn't she?
Scottie rides Taff around triumphantly while music from the beginning of the movie plays.
Kit and Scottie rebuild the pen. Then...Josie strikes! With more suspenseful music.
Josie's father puts her on a bench. Josie apologizes for taking the pony.
Don't do it, Scottie.
Mr. Ellison bring some chard to Scottie
Don't do it, Scottie
Josie asks for Scottie to bring Taff over sometimes.
Don't do it, Scottie.
And I'm awaiting the sequel where Josie slowly takes complete control of the pony.
I loved Ride A Wild Pony (1975). It is the best children's movie I've covered, with unlikable characters, good writing, and surprisingly gritty feel. Way better than the other horse movie. The ending feels out-of-place with the rest of the movie, however.
Overall, I would recommend showing this movie to your children. After The Candy Snatchers (1973), of course
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