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Hidalgo

Synopsis:

Hidalgo is a horse story with a cowboy doing a long-distance race against a bunch of Arabs. Hidalgo is the name of the horse and his "owner" is a cross-breed American / American-Indian. Thus we have two main characters that are "cross-breeds" and they both get a LOT of guff. Will the old mustang win this race? Watch the show or just take a wild guess!

The Review:

According to IMDB, Frank Hopkins (the owner of Hidalgo) is a part of the Pony Express back in 1890. (I didn't get that impression. I thought he just worked for the army.) Anyway, he delivers a message to some general and the next thing we know, they're disarming a bunch of Indians. Unfortunately, they get into a struggle with deaf and dumb Indian and a gun goes off. Thus, the idiot Army kills all the Indians. This shakes up Hopkins quite a bit.

He ends up a drunk working for a circus run by Buffalo Bill Cody. In his former life, he was a long-distance racer and won lots of races. A dude from Arabia comes and wants him to come to do their 3000 miles race across very harsh arid land. Hopkins accepts and we're on our way.

Right now it should be noted that this movie has lots of shots of scenery and lots of blah-blahing that didn't do a whole lot for me. I like scenery and I like plot advancement, but most of the time this didn't happen in these scenes. It was more filler than anything. There were lots and lots of scenes where people told Hopkins that he and his horse weren't worthy to be in the race. And there were plenty of things to say about impure blood too. That part of the movie got old real fast.

Along the line, Hopkins races away from a massive sand storm (it looks cool!), gets accused of un-worthy relations with the Sheik's daughter, Jazira, and does battle with a jerk that's related somehow to the Sheik.

The Jazira episode is interesting in that she is the typical Hollywood Princess. She doesn't do what women normally do. She gets to ride horses and fight and junk, but only in secret, due to their culture. She is supposed to be married to someone she doesn't like and for some reason she goes to visit Hopkins. This gets Hopkins in trouble and the Arabs want to make him sterile because of his "indiscretion." (There is no sex or anything close to it in the entire movie.) This sucks for Hopkins, but fortuitously, some bandits attack led by the previously mentioned jerk. This dude kidnaps the princess and the Sheik gives Hopkins a day to rescue her.

He rescues her, keeps his manhood, and continues the race. Later on he ends up killing the jerk because he speared Hidalgo. This pretty much sums up the movie. Of course there were many more scenes, but you get the gist. 

The Good Stuff:

The Bad Stuff:

Dumb Stuff:

This movie had a fairly positive message of overcoming all odds, but it also had long stretches of boredom that made it seem like it lasted more like 3+ hours rather than just a little over two. Most children wouldn't like it due to this and they probably shouldn't see it because of the violence.

If you like horses or Mortensen, then you'll probably want to get out and see this movie.