October 9, 2010

The Legend of Secretariat - A Movie Review

America loves a winner, and Secretariat was about as big a winner as you could get. 37 years later the big red colt is further immortalized as the star, and namesake of a major motion picture. It was a movie that I enjoyed, and more importantly the non-racing crowd enjoyed. Disney’s big screen depiction of the great horse is based on historical facts mixed liberally with Hollywood script. Because it is not meant to be a documentary, I arrived at the theatre determined to detach myself from everything I knew about him. This proved to be impossible, as there were very few stretches in the film where I was not critiquing the realness of the action. But, at the same time, I was still able to fall smoothly into the intended flow of the movie, and it was fun. Disney’s version of Secretariat is more of a traditional, formulaic, feel-good movie, than a bastion of historical accuracy. Fine. I am OK with that, especially when I realize that of the millions of people that will pay to see this movie, less than one percent will be hardcore race fans. Their version left the entire crowd cheering as Secretariat drew away from Sham in his masterpiece that was the Belmont Stakes.
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2 comments:

NetworkEmpowerment said...

In approximately 1 hour and 30min I will begin to watch the magic unfold. Thanks for the great review :)

Brian Zipse said...

I hope you enjoy it, LDP!