Hidalgo

 

Hidalgo 2004

• Director: Joe Johnston
• Seen by this director: October Sky
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Omar Sharif, Zuleikha Robinson, Louise Lombard, Adam Alexi-Mall, Saïd Taghmaoui, Silas Carson, Harsh Nayyar, JK Simmons, Adoni Maropis, Peter Mensah, Joshua Wolf Colman, Floyd Red Crow Westerman, Elizabeth Berridge
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Viggo Mortensen – Green Book, Far from Men, The Road, A History of Violence, Lord of the Rings etc, 28 Days, Carlito’s Way, The Indian Runner, Witness
• Omar Sharif – Funny Girl, Doctor Zhivago, The Yellow Rolls Royce, Lawrence of Arabia
• Zuleikha Robinson – The Namesake, The Merchant of Venice,
• Saïd Taghmaoui – Wonder Woman, Lost, Hideous Kinky
• Silas Carson – Unforgotten, Hustle, Star Wars III, Fever Pitch, Cold Lazarus
• JK Simmons – La La Land, Whiplash, The Words, Burn After Reading, Juno, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, The Cider House Rules
• Joshua Wolf Colman – Terminator the Sarah Connor Chronicles
• Floyd Red Crow Westerman – Swing Vote, Dharma and Greg, The X Files, Dances with Wolves
• Elizabeth Berridge – Amadeus
• Why? Mortensen and the horses.
• Seen:  Once before. Now 22 October 2022      

       This starts out as a Western but turns into an Eastern.

       Frank Hopkins (Mortensen), son of a white father and a Sioux mother, is sickened by the Wounded Knee massacre and has to drink himself into a stupor to endure performing in the Buffalo Bill (Simmons) Western show on his mustang Hidalgo, famed for never having lost a long-distance race.

       When he is challenged by the Sheik (Sharif), owner of the finest Arabian racehorse in the world, to take part in the thousand-year-old three-thousand-mile race across the Arabian desert, the prize money beckons. Off he goes and the film becomes an Eastern.

       It’s a great adventure story with evil villains, both western and eastern, a beautiful princess Jazira (Robinson) who is a horse expert, a beautiful British horse owner (Lombard) who will stop at nothing to win the race, impossible odds, murderous sandstorms, deadly thirst…

       Gorgeously filmed and exciting, it’s well worth seeing this second time. And probably a third. 

4* of 5