Tweet
Diane Lane, John Malkovich
One of the earliest religious disappointments in a young girl’s life devolves upon her unanswered prayer for a horse. —Phillis Theroux
If this quote makes you nod your head, you’ll probably like Secretariat, a horse movie to affirm the feelings of any horse-movie hater. It is a nice, heart-warming film in the classic sports-film mold, appropriate for families and horse-lovers. I have read more than fifteen horse books and I’ll bet I’m the only guy I know who can name the racetracks where the three jewels of the Triple Crown are held (I can also name harness-racing’s equivalents of the Kentucky Derby, both for pacers and trotters), so I think I am the only guy I can think of to whom I might recommend this.
Diane Lane plays a middle-aged mother in Colorado. Her father, the owner of a horse-breeding farm, takes ill and Lane is determined that the farm will continue, even though she knows very little about the breeding, training, and racing of thoroughbreds herself. She hires a retired trainer (John Malkovich) to prepare her one colt for the Kentucky Derby. The success or failure of the farm depends on the success or failure of this horse, and both owner and trainer approach the entire project with a go-for-the-win attitude.
Lane’s family is still in Colorado, so all this horse-training puts some strain on everyone, especially a teenaged daughter with anti-war sentiments, not to mention the very busy lawyer husband who’s counted on her to keep the household humming for all these years.
There is one breath-taking moment of complete beauty, when Secretariat runs across the screen from left to right in slow motion. There are other scenes of only regular beauty, too, of the sort you’d expect from a film about thoroughbred racing.
What happens is a matter of history: not only does Secretariat win the Derby and then the Preakness and then the Belmont, but he does it in a way that stuns the world at a time when horse-racing was perhaps the world’s most popular sport after boxing.
I doubt anyone could hate this movie. I rather liked it.
7/10 (IMDb rating)
72/100 (Criticker rating)
One of the earliest religious disappointments in a young girl’s life devolves upon her unanswered prayer for a horse. —Phillis Theroux
If this quote makes you nod your head, you’ll probably like Secretariat, a horse movie to affirm the feelings of any horse-movie hater. It is a nice, heart-warming film in the classic sports-film mold, appropriate for families and horse-lovers. I have read more than fifteen horse books and I’ll bet I’m the only guy I know who can name the racetracks where the three jewels of the Triple Crown are held (I can also name harness-racing’s equivalents of the Kentucky Derby, both for pacers and trotters), so I think I am the only guy I can think of to whom I might recommend this.
Diane Lane plays a middle-aged mother in Colorado. Her father, the owner of a horse-breeding farm, takes ill and Lane is determined that the farm will continue, even though she knows very little about the breeding, training, and racing of thoroughbreds herself. She hires a retired trainer (John Malkovich) to prepare her one colt for the Kentucky Derby. The success or failure of the farm depends on the success or failure of this horse, and both owner and trainer approach the entire project with a go-for-the-win attitude.
Lane’s family is still in Colorado, so all this horse-training puts some strain on everyone, especially a teenaged daughter with anti-war sentiments, not to mention the very busy lawyer husband who’s counted on her to keep the household humming for all these years.
There is one breath-taking moment of complete beauty, when Secretariat runs across the screen from left to right in slow motion. There are other scenes of only regular beauty, too, of the sort you’d expect from a film about thoroughbred racing.
What happens is a matter of history: not only does Secretariat win the Derby and then the Preakness and then the Belmont, but he does it in a way that stuns the world at a time when horse-racing was perhaps the world’s most popular sport after boxing.
I doubt anyone could hate this movie. I rather liked it.
7/10 (IMDb rating)
72/100 (Criticker rating)
Comment