Reviewed by: Joe

Directed by: Joe Johnston

Produced by: Casey Silver

Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Omar Sharif, Zuleikha Robinson, Louise Lombard, & Said Taghmaoui

Based on the true story of the greatest long-distance horse race ever run, "Hidalgo" is an epic action-adventure and one man's journey of personal redemption. Held yearly for centuries, the Ocean of Fire - a 3,000 mile survival race across the Arabian Desert - was a challenge restricted to the finest Arabian horses ever bred, the purest and noblest lines, owned by the greatest royal families. In 1890, a wealthy Sheik invited an American and his horse to enter the race for the first time. Frank T. Hopkins (Mortensen) was a cowboy and dispatch rider for the US cavalry who had once been billed as the greatest rider the West had ever known. The Sheik (Sharif) would put his claim to the test, pitting the American cowboy and his mustang, Hidalgo, against the world's greatest Arabian horses and Bedouin riders - some of whom were determined to prevent the foreigner from finishing the race. For Frank, the Ocean of Fire becomes not only a matter of pride and honor, but a race for his very survival as he and his horse, Hidalgo, attempt the impossible.

Hidalgo stampedes over the line of believability and crosses the finish line with nothing more then an over embellished, inconsistent and, ultimately, flat tall-tale. Even if you go into this feature with no knowledge of the controversy it has created, the filmmakers continuously throw amazing event upon amazing event that, after time, begin to grow more outrageous and unbelievable as the film progresses. Granted the tale was "conceived" during the 1930’s when people were apparently a lot more gullible but in today’s modern retrospective, we thankfully know a whole lot better and therefore the tagline "Based on a True Story" can be greatly disputed.

Outside the outlandish events depicted in the feature film, the moral lessons of "equality" and religion come off as being too preachy and some scenes feeling over exaggerated. Perhaps if the filmmakers explained the time period in which the film is set a bit more to describe the reason for such events, there may be a bit more understanding of the actions of certain individuals, whether they were right or wrong. Bottom-line is that Hidalgo is nothing near close to the artistic quality of Seabiscuit nor is its action sequences in comparison to those of The Lord of the Rings series. Much like Hopkins himself, the audience is left lost and searching for answers.