# ID an old movie help

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-an-old-movie-help/761421>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [July 31, 2016, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-an-old-movie-help/761421 "2016-07-31T23:27:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2016, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-an-old-movie-help/761421/1 "2016-07-31T23:27:28Z")

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I recall watching it in grade school (mid-to-late 70s), it was an ‘arty’ movie. I have the impression that there was very little, if any, dialogue spoken in the course of it.

The main gist of it was a troubled, mute young boy (possibly autistic or developmentally disabled) bonding with his favorite horse.

What I remember most was it abruptly turning into a kind of horror movie in the end: the boy is riding his horse on a very grey, foreboding day out in gloomy looking plain. Another rider with a long cloak happens to be galloping around the plain as well, and comes up close to the boy.

The ‘face’ of this other rider is revealed to be a skull – the rider is DEATH!! The boy gallops away, but the horse gets stuck in quicksand or some type of bog. It can’t get out, no matter how hard it bucks. The boy is thrown off, but manages to run back to his farm and get help. All the farmhands rush to the rescue and try pulling the horse out of the sinking pit, to no avail. The horse sinks and finally drowns. Everyone sadly walks away.

And that’s it. The End.

Does this sound familiar at all to anyone?

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**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2016, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-an-old-movie-help/761421/2 "2016-07-31T23:41:11Z")

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While I’m looking, is it possible you’re confusing the horse scene in The Neverending Story with another movie?  
I only ask because all the search strings I use keep bringing up that scene (it’s on youtube as well, if you want to watch it).

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**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2016, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-an-old-movie-help/761421/3 "2016-07-31T23:45:28Z")

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Sounds like [Run Wild, Run Free](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064909/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)

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**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2016, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-an-old-movie-help/761421/4 "2016-07-31T23:50:14Z")

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Looks like someone else (on another board) asked the exact same question and Run Wild, Run Free was the right answer…after a bunch of people suggest The Neverending Story

> **[A short film about a horse, possibly featuring the Grim Reaper?](https://ask.metafilter.com/246087/A-short-film-about-a-horse-possibly-featuring-the-Grim-Reaper)**
>
> Anybody remember this? A boy rides his horse in the rain, it gets stuck in the mud, the boy screams his horse's name (Philip), a lot, while the figure of Death looks on?

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**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-an-old-movie-help/761421/5 "2016-08-01T02:58:19Z")

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:tap: :tap: :tap:

[Is this thing on?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=479054)

😃