BEFORE: Turns out my instincts were solid in making this equine-themed chain part of the larger war chain. "Spirit" had a bunch of U.S. cavalrymen in it, and hinted rather delicately at the conflicts between U.S. soldiers and Native Americans out on the frontier. And tonight's film starts rather conveniently in the remnants of the Old West, and then moves to the Middle East, where there's always some kind of conflict going on. And this will set me up perfectly for the next film, which will take me two days to watch.
Linking from "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron", Matt Damon was also in "True Grit", another film with horses, with J.K. Simmons (last seen in "The Ladykillers") who has a cameo here as Buffalo Bill Cody.
THE PLOT: In 1890, a down-and-out cowboy and his horse travel to Arabia to compete in a deadly cross-desert horse race.
AFTER: There are some films that by their nature give one insight to the screenwriting process. Like with "Titanic", some writer probably surmised that a story taking place on a sinking ship was a fertile ground (you had me at "iceberg"), but then someone else may have suggested the use of the framing device with the explorers finding the sunken ship, and then someone else may have said the film really needed a love story, and what the heck let's throw in a diamond heist for good measure. In the case of "Titanic", the pieces came together brilliantly in retrospect, however it happened.
In the case of "Hidalgo", I imagine someone looking at the script and pointing out that the whole middle act takes place in the desert, and it would be scene after scene of barren wasteland, and since it's the kind of race where the horses aren't really running, they're sort of ambling, this thing's just not going to be very interesting. So let's add a love interest, for extra drama she can be the sheik's daughter, let's add a villain, and in the middle there can be this big exciting shoot-out taking place in an Arabic marketplace, just like the one in "Raiders of the Lost Ark".
With this script-by-committee approach (I'm assuming) the first victim is probably authenticity. Was there really a man named Frank Hopkins who raced across the desert? Sure, but I'm betting that no particular race was this exciting or full of drama. Or sidetracks, since it seems like the kidnapping and the market scene probably comprised like three days of story, which seems a little out of place when there's a timed race going on. Unless the sheik specifically halted the race while they sorted out all these other little things - which is possible, but then it's right back to the harsh desert crossing. What, no breaks for the guy who saved your daughter and the threat to your kingdom?
There's a Doonesbury cartoon from the 1980's where a participant in the New York Marathon is being interviewed on radio, and praised for his finish time of three weeks, four days and seven hours (or something like that). He explains that once he reached Queens he met a girl, fell in love and decided to settle down, but when her father didn't approve and the relationship didn't work out, he decided he might as well get back out and finish the race. I couldn't help but think of that cartoon after watching this.
It's good to know that these tests of human (and horse) endurance took place, I suppose. And it's good to know that there are the kind of people who hear about a desert race where most of the participants never survive to see the finish line, and they say, "Sign me up." What happened to that frontier spirit? And now we know who would win in a race between an American mustang and a bunch of Arabian chargers (was there ever any doubt?).
I admit I didn't really follow too much of the action at the beginning, but there was a lot of drama that came from Hopkins being part Native American, and also being the long-distance rider who delivered the message that authorized the massacre at Wounded Knee. I didn't get the contrivance, at least not at first, that led to Hopkins entering the race - he was billed in the Wild West show as the world's greatest distance rider, and the sheik was the breeder of a line of Arabian horses that were known for their distance running. But how did the wealthy female horse breeder fit into the picture? I'm still trying to puzzle out her motivations.
There's a message about whether horses should be allowed to run free, or put to work for humans, (and if you don't tear up at the end of this film, congratulations, you have no soul) which ties in perfectly with the theme of "Spirit" and the things I said after watching "War Horse", so it's funny but things once again are coming together this week - I don't expect to see much of this thematic coincidence taking place next year.
Also starring Viggo Mortensen (last seen in "A Dangerous Method"), Omar Sharif, Louise Lombard, Zuleikha Robinson, Adam Alexi-Malle, Silas Carson, Peter Mensah, and Floyd "Red Crow" Westerman.
RATING: 5 out of 10 mirages
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