MOVIE REVIEW: ‘Hidalgo’ rides across familiar, fun plot
Grade: B
Good, but not great. That’s my overall impression of this “Seabiscuit of Arabia,” which I call it because I suspect its creation was influenced by last year’s hit film about a horse that was too small. “Hidalgo” is about an American cowboy who competes in a 3,000-mile race across the Arabian desert, the “Ocean of Fire.”
Long-distance horce racing is something I had never considered until I saw the trailer. The action movie opens with a race across 1,100 miles of 1890s American plains. We learn that “mustangs don’t belong in races with thoroughbreds,” but of course, the mixed-breed mustang wins because he (or his rider) is the hero of the movie. Horse and rider were made for each other, as we find out that Hopkins himself is also a half-breed.
Some complain that this film is all embellishment and fabrication, but I have more problems with a movie falling into cliché traps than I have with its truthfulness. As I searched the Web for info about cowboy Frank Hopkins and his horse Hidalgo, I found that the horse may have not even existed! And one of the only things documented about Frank is his name, and frankly, I don’t care.
Why? I’m not here to verify the film’s truth but to review it as cinema. If I were to criticize its penchant for exaggeration, I would have to do the same to “JFK,” “Amadeus,” and “A Beautiful Mind,” three of the best movies ever. In fact, a movie can still be great, even if it’s lying. Even documentaries fib and mislead through creative editing (see Michael Moore’s entertaining “Bowling for Columbine.”)
Anyway, Frank T. Hopkins (Viggo Mortensen) is disillusioned after seeing the massacre at Wounded Knee, detailed in the heartwrenching book “Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee.” He spends his days drinking and performing in Wild Bill Hickock’s traveling show. By the way, much of the first half hour of this movie mirrors the beginning of “The Last Samurai.” In the Cruise movie, his character puts on a show for people who want to hear of his battles against the “savage red man.” But neither man’s heart is in the show.
Then Hopkins is recruited by some Mid-Easterners to travel to their land to learn life lessons about himself and others. Similarly, Cruise is recruited by some Far-Easterners to do the same. Except in “The Last Samurai,” Cruise’s character comes to appreciate and prefer the culture. The same can’t be said for Hopkins.
George Carlin once did a stand-up routine in which he delivered bizarre sentences that he guaranteed had never been uttered before. The Sheikh of Sheikhs, played by “Lawrence of Arabia’s” Omar Sharif, says “There is a tempest in my tent that has come in the form of my cherished daughter to upset my failing pancreas.” I’m pretty sure nobody has ever said that, but it made me laugh for other reasons. Maybe it’s because subtitles transliterate too much. Much spoken dialogue is in Lakota and Arabic, and some of the translated phrases feel like they were written by foreign students just learning English.
Hopkins and Hidalgo, of course, have to overcome everything under the sun in this unforgiving land. The bad guys (and girl) try to seduce Hopkins, sabotage the horse, set traps, kill him, hire men to kill him, etc. etc. Remember, folks, it’s all made up. Just sit back and be entertained.
The death-cheating contest across the Sahara desert is 3000 miles long. Could it possibly end in a photo finish? Is the pope Catholic?
All in all, I recommend the movie despite my criticism. Its good-heartedness and unabashed desire to entertain put it above mediocrity, but its cliché-ridden goofiness puts it well below greatness. So the passing grade is warranted.
Warning: The violence in the film is graphic in some parts. A horse is punctured and cut deliberately with a knife in close-ups. Oh, and men are impaled, shot and stabbed. Interesting how desensitized we’ve become, as I’ve ranked animal injury above multiple human deaths in importance.
Mark LaRocco is a senior majoring in print/broadcast journalism. Comments may be sent to him at marklaroc@cc.usu.edu.