Hidalgo (2004)

the audience applauded

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Excellent, smart action film.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

I don't want to spoil anything for you so I'll just say that I've seen this movie at least four times since it came out and I love it more each time. I highly recommend it because it is one of my favorite movies of all times. I've also seen Silence of the Lambs about the same amount of times, to give you a counterpoint. I also enjoyed Spartacus the TV show, that has one of Hidalgo's actors in it. I also enjoy Ripper Street, Peaky Blinders, Orphan Black, just to name a bunch of shows that I like so you don't think I only enjoy Disney (Touchstone) movies like Hidalgo. I don't really understand why I have to have ten lines of text to post a review, that seems very arbitrary and unnecessary. OK, I think this will post now. Enjoy!

Traumatised by his part in the Wounded Knee massacre, rider Frank Hopkins leaves the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show and accepts a challenge to take part in the 3,000 mile Ocean of Fire endurance horse race across the Arabian Desert.Based on Hopkins' self-related life story (which, it appears, contains no verifiable facts and must, therefore, be regarded as of questionable accuracy or less), Hidalgo - the name of Hopkins' mustang - is an exciting and enjoyable action adventure movie, albeit one which suffers from shifting moods. The opening, with Wounded Knee and Hopkins' spiritual malaise in the Wild West Show promises some emotional depth but, despite Viggo Mortensen's typical intensity and integrity, what follows is Boy's Own action adventure stuff, including an exciting princess rescue mission as well as the privations of the race itself.The movie is enjoyable, but without the depth it might have had.

What on Earth did Viggo Mortensen do wrong that meant he had to spend two and a half hours in the scorching desert talking to horses and eating bugs? Whatever it was, it must have been pretty damned evil of him. We expect to see the likes of Viggo Mortensen in roles such as these: confident, rugged men atop steeds and pretty handy in conflict; a post-Aragorn role for someone who seeks adventure and isn't the man to panic in the face of danger. But come the end of the film, we're surprised at how well he's done NOT to look like his "Carlito's Way" character; a tired, withered man beaten up by life and the absurd challenges he decided to take on therein it. In a directorial sense, this meek 2004 action/romance hybrid is precisely the sort of episodic nonsense we've come to expect from director Joe Johnston, the man responsible for the likes of Jumanji and Jurassic Park III, but here running out of luck with an often excruciated, almost certainly overly long, race film about respectable Westerners heading off to the untamed Arab world to prove his superiority.Viggo Mortensen plays Frank Hopkins, a Sioux Native American with the most un Sioux-like of names. He is a long distance rider/racer in this, the 1890s; a man who's attained fame for such things out of his skills in being a courier during the wars between indigenous Native Americans and white, European invaders. With his horse, the titular Hidalgo, they form what is considered the greatest long distance riding partnership of all time. They're racing on the American frontier in the very first scene, Hopkins established as a man unafraid of gamesmanship if it means winning against an arrogant rival; a man who's able to saddle up in the face of adversity before charging on ahead and pulling off a sensational win versus someone who was assured of victory. With a strong tie to his horse, cool in conflict and a hard bodied characteristic to boot, Hopkins is your man.Burying the pain of a massacre bestowed upon his people some years ago, and away from being in his element on the race circuit, Hopkins bites his lip and works with his horse on a cheesy, politically incorrect stage show – one that is tacky and phony on top of the fact it talks down Native American Indians. A release arrives in the form of a chubby, arrogant Arab who's over from the Middle East with his aides, one of whom looks suspiciously like that sinister looking chap decked out in black from Raiders of the Lost Ark, to lay down to Hopkins the challenge of competing in his annual endurance race having observed the title bestowed upon Hopkins and Hidalgo that they are "the world's greatest distance horse and rider". The race itself is across a few thousand miles in the searing desert heat, a grueling contest against some of the best long distance riders in the world; most of whom will be locals feeding off the home advantage.Accepting, Hopkins suddenly finds himself in the firing line of slurs; intimidation and that of being demeaned when amongst these established racers, people who find the presence of this American and his show pony about to undertake this endurance race quite amusing. Before anything along these racing lines actually begins, Johnston bogs us down with a sub-plot involving the race organiser's daughter, Jazira (Robinson), and the fact that he who wins the race will have her as his wife. This, of course, relegates the lone female presence is relegated to that of being a prize awaiting the champion - although, this IS the Arab world circa. the late nineteenth century, so should the film be pulled up on its gender politics, or indeed hailed as a realistic depiction of hardships in a specific place at a specific time. Since the film has zero faith in the race itself being a dramatic enough entity, one of the local Arabic riders partaking in the race wants Jazira himself anyway, champion or otherwise. This will, of course, induce the later required conflict. To an extent, you cannot blame the film for such an approach; previous pieces of its ilk, such as Rat Race or The Cannonball Run, have called upon comedy to see it through its racing segments so as to keep us occupied. Hidalgo likes to think it's based on true events, and heading down the comedic passage would be, you would think, detrimental to the legacy of they who it is that's being depicted.The race itself is a curiosity, a contest wherein the participants ferociously duke it out over first place during the very early stages of the competition before all catching up with each other anyway come the evening when they arrive at a checkpoint. As things roll on, we're left sitting there waiting for some sort of sabotage to rear up, some kind of cheating – sure enough, there is. Then, there's a sandstorm; also, a rivalry with a British trainer rears up, but oddly enough they do not suffer the resentment from the Arab hosts that our lead does in spite of the fact they're pompous and Western and female. Even though there is fierce racing across great distances, the likes of this trainer magically appear at the next rest stop ready to give Hopkins more verbal grief – but how did they get there so quickly? The earlier nonsense to do with Jazira and the suitors she desires; those who desire her and those of whom her father would like her to marry, rear up on cue and cause the film to just come across as a completely different entity. The horse is too anthropomorphic; the film is no fun and to keep yourself occupied, you have to wonder just what in the world it was that those behind this were thinking.

However far-fetched this ripping yarn may be, it is undeniably clever, moving and enjoyable. Other reviewers for this have missed the key point, that the hero's horse is a brilliant metaphor of himself. Hidalgo is a tongue-in-cheek reference to a Spanish aristocratic naming convention, meaning 'The son of', while Mustang is most likely ultimately etymologically tied to the Latin word for 'mixed'. Both rider and horse are half-breeds, taking on the finest Arabian thoroughbreds. I watched this film with a class full of Saudi male students of English. Apart from the whiskey, there was nothing I felt to be too strong for Islamic conventions here. The students were charmed by the classical Arabic of Omar Sharif, and the respect shown by the hero for the Arab world.