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Movie: Hidalgo (2004)
Director: Joe Johnston
Players: Viggo Mortensen, Omar Sharif
Grade: C+
There’s an interesting fact about the movie Hidalgo. The guy who wrote the screenplay (the script), John Fusco, also wrote the screenplay for Hallmark Entertainment’s latest epic film. I happen to work at Hallmark. A couple weeks ago Hidalgo came to the Ziegfeld Theater, the largest theater in Manhattan, which happens to be across the street from where I work. A small group of us from work got together and decided to show our support for John.
This is the story of Frank Hopkins and his horse, Hidalgo. Hopkins is working at a dead-end job called Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show when he and Hidalgo get offered a chance to be in the “Ocean of Fire,” a three thousand mile race across the brutal and desolate Arabian desert sands. More importantly, Hidalgo gets the change to prove that he’s the fastest horse in the world.
There will be a couple factors that determine whether or not you will like this movie. It’ll mostly depend on how much you like horses, but also how believable you think the story is (since it is supposed to be a true story).
Hidalgo is highly adventurous and very long (136 minutes). The beginning is slow, mostly because Hopkins is always drunk and depressed and it gets old quickly. Once the race in Arabia begins though, the movie keeps you emotionally attached until the end. Hopkins absolutely loves his horse. You believe that the two of them are best friends that completely depend on each other. Just getting to watch Hidalgo race his heart out is reason enough to see this film.
Random movie quote: "That was so fucking money. That was like the Jedi mind-shit." -- From Swingers starring Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau
Movie Vault Recommendation: Tired of happy movies? In celebration of finally being released on DVD last week, please check out Schindler’s List starring Ralph Fiennes and Liam Neeson. It is definitely not a feel-good movie, but a movie that every single human being needs to watch at least once. It will make you question so many things.
