The Red Pony (1949 film)

The Red Pony is a 1949 Western drama film based on John Steinbecks 1937 novella of the same name. Steinbeck also wrote the screenplay for this film.

In adapting his novella into a screenplay, Steinbeck focused mainly on the chapters The Gift and The Promise. Characters names were changed from those in the book Jody Tiflin became Tom, and his parents Carl and Ruth became Fred and Alice. The film also features a much happier ending than the novella in the book, Billy Buck cannot deliver the foal naturally and so has to kill the mare in order to remove her uterus. Other such violent scenes, such as Jody beating a vulture to death, were also toned down or omitted entirely for the film adaptation.The film is notable today because of the original score composed by Aaron Copland, which he also arranged and published as an orchestral suite. Copland himself conducted Londons New Philharmonia Orchestra in a recording of the music for Columbia Records, which was later reissued on CD by Sony Records. ........

Source: Wikipedia