Thursday, September 4, 2008

Hidalgo

Dir: Joe Johnston, 2004 (8.9*)
This is based on the true story of the greatest long-distance horse racer of all time. By the film’s beginning, Frank Hopkins (Viggo Mortensen) had won over 500 races in North America without a loss, but of course his horse Hidalgo was the real winner. Arab shiek Omar Sharif hears of this legend, and convinces him to come to Arabia and participate in a 3000-mile desert race in which half the teams don’t survive. Though technically not a western, it looks like one, and does feature a horseman in the wilderness. One of the best horse racing stories ever filmed, also a great adventure film.

4 comments:

Anonymous,  September 4, 2008 at 8:29 PM  

Psst - it's not a true story. It is, however, a fun movie.

Anonymous,  September 4, 2008 at 8:30 PM  

Psst - it's Viggo, not Hugo, Mortensen

José Sinclair September 7, 2008 at 5:50 PM  

Viggo! can't believe I said Hugo.. I've seen all of Mortensen's - liked him in Eastern Promises a lot, he finally got a meaty part.

did NOT know this wasn't a true story... I'll have to look that up and change this!

can't believe there aren't more names wrong, since I did most of this "after hours"

thanks for catching that!! -- Jman

José Sinclair September 7, 2008 at 5:52 PM  

ps - Dr. Strangelove was based on a true story too, right?? lol...
numerous air force personnel online (scammers?) say Close Encounters was based on a true event! food for thought there...

the one that really looks thinly disguised as fiction is Thank You For Smoking... terrific comedy!
..jman...

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These are the individual film reviews of what I'm considering the best 1000 dvds available, whether they are films, miniseries, or live concerts. Rather than rush out all 1000 at once, I'm doing them over time to allow inclusion of new releases - in fact, 2008 has the most of any year so far, 30 titles in all; that was a very good year for films, one of the best ever.



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