White Mane - Critical Reception

Critical Reception

The film, since its first release in 1953, has generally received favorable reviews from critics. When the picture was rereleased in late 2007 by Janus Films, Terrence Rafferty, in The New York Times, said the short "is among the world’s most famous and most honored films for children... But kids’ stuff not... The tone of film is that of open mouthed wonder." In White Mane, Rafferty wrote, "you sense, as in few other films, the real terrors of nature... And Lamorisse, movie show, really was a remarkable artist: one of the cinema’s best poets and a fearless explorer of the scary and exhilarating outbacks of the imagination."

Philip Kennicott in The Washington Post liked the mise en scène, writing "there are perfectly worthy reasons to keep in circulation. Visually, masterful." However, Kennicott argues that the film takes place in a world of lies. He wrote, "A boy and his horse are hunted down by adult ranchers — while a narrator makes vague promises of a better world to come. The beautiful imagery of is deployed in support of a moral system — a blunt promise of rewards for good behavior — not much more sophisticated than that of Santa and the Easter Bunny. Ah, the time-honored tradition of adults indoctrinating kids in a world-view that will lead only to bitter disappointment, unless the kids refuse to grow up."