In the same spirit as the Indiana Jones films, with more action besides horse racing than I could have imagined.
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A man and his horse.
There once was a time when that was all you needed for a rousing story. With "Hidalgo," Touchstone whisks us back to that era when cowboys were synonymous with adventure and romance--not necessarily the female kind, but certainly the whiz-bang dime-novel variety. And when you put that cowboy smack-dab in the middle of the Arabian desert in 1890-91, you also get the kind of exotic culture-clash that made Indiana Jones such a fun ride.
That's what "Hidalgo" is: a straightforward, fictionalized horse-race story that's all the more compelling because we're told it's based on the real life of Frank T. Hopkins, who claimed to have won some 400 long-distance races with his painted mustang, Hidalgo. One of those races was the Great Horse Race of the Bedouin, which we're told had been held for the last 1000 years. Hopkins was "the infidel," invited to participate because one of the sheik's party had heard that he was billing his horse, a fellow performer in Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show, as the greatest long-distance horse in the world. Prove it, he was basically told. And so he went up against 100 purebred Arabian horses and their riders in a 3000-mile race that, win or lose, would feed his legend.
If, that is, you believe it.
This film has caused a bit of an uproar over whether Frank T. Hopkins was an endurance racer or an endearing teller of tall tales. And Disney has come under fire for promoting this as being "based on a true story." So am I the only person who, all these years, has taken every Hollywood biopic with a grain of salt? From the early black-and-white films like "Stars and Stripes Forever" to the more recent "Ray," I've always known that when it came to screenplays, Hollywood tweaked everyone's life to make it fit the dramatic arc. Characters were routinely dropped or added, emotional through-lines were strengthened, and the truth was stretched, all to tell a good story. I mean, hasn't this occurred to anyone else?
The latest outrage over factuality hints that what we're probably moving toward is a rating system for "truth," where pretty soon you're going to see a distinction between "based on," "inspired by," and "embellished" stories. But does it matter? Davy Crockett exaggerated his exploits as well, and when Disney stretched the truth even farther in their TV series, it was like a retelling of a tall tale. So is this, and it's a dandy. Kidnapped Arabian princesses, a competitor who has his own falcon, bandits, ambushes, traps, sword fights, and a competition between a Spanish mustang and Al-Hattal, the best Arabian horse EVER? Relax, people. Just accept this as the adventure movie it is, and enjoy the ride.
We're told that it was an endurance ride from Galveston, Texas to Rutland, Vermont that started Hopkins on his infamous trail, and that's when we pick up the story in this film by Joe Johnston ("Honey, I Shrunk the Kids," "Jurassic Park III"). Viggo Mortenson plays it just right as the confident but stoic Hopkins, who wagers his Colt .45 on a side bet with dime-novel fan and closet cowboy-lover (no, no, not the "Brokeback Mountain" kind) Sheikh Riyadh (Omar Sharif), who puts up $10,000. Sandstorms, locusts, quicksand, a colonial femme fatale (Louise Lombard), and the Sheikh's brigand of a nephew (who sets deadly traps and tries to kill the cowboy and his horse) all stand between Hopkins and the finish line. It's not just man and horse galloping along. The plot is full of as many pitfalls as one of the old-time serials, but Mortenson and his horse (five were actually used for Hidalgo) are likable enough to shoulder the load. The rest of the cast does a credible job, as well. It's not supposed to be comic, but anyone whose enjoyed J.K. Simmons antics in "Spider-Man" will get a kick out of seeing him play the hard-drinking Buffalo Bill Cody.
Johnston made the right call to film this in Morocco, and cinematographer Shelly Johnson--who handled the camerawork for Johnston in "Jurassic Park III"-uses a lot of stationary camera and wide-angle shots to make the most of all those incredible sandy vistas. As for special effects, I doubt that anyone can tell that the locust Hopkins eats was really a blend of sugar, paper, and onion skins--though the plague itself, up close, looks a little off. The rest of the FX look decent, though--especially the sandstorm.
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