As you all know from time to time I like to spice it up with a few guest here and there, and today you get a treat! Guest Blogger Radcliff Angus is giving us a wonderful review of the memorable Secretariat.
Secretariat, “…the excitement of the true sports movie like Rudy and Remember The Titans”
This is a movie I actually looked forward to seeing for a several reasons. As a young kid that grew up outside 45 minutes away Saratoga, NY, which is famous for its horse racing, I often heard about this horse called Secretariat. I also heard many news stories of other horses that would try and fail to equal Secretariat’s historic 1973 U.S. Triple Crown win in similar dramatic fashion--only 11 horses every won the Triple Crown’s Belmont Stakes, Preakness and the Kentucky Derby races before Secretariat and none since. I remember seeing news reels of Secretariat capturing the attention of the entire nation in the early 70s. But, I never really knew the story behind how this horse came to be or who was responsible for bringing him to such fame. As sports fan and sports movie fan, the story itself and how well it is told, especially from a historic perspective are what make Secretariat a very exciting and interesting movie. All these attributes add to the excitement of the true sports movie like Rudy and Remember The Titans for example--two of the best sports movies of my generation. It is because it is about the underdog and his real life fight to overcome impossible odds. Secretariat to me is up there with this type of movie with the exception that this sports hero’s talent has not been repeated in over 30 years! As a movie, it attains an exciting movie “Trifecta”--which in horse racing terms is the betting prowess of knowing the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place finishers of a race in that specific order. It does a great job of telling a historic sports story without coming off as a boring documentary, establishing a great lead character who you can’t wait to see succeed at their impossible cause and finally creating a sports drama that has you cheering in your seat as if you are actually at the sporting event.
The story is not only about the unequalled talent of a young colt nick-named “Big Red” before getting its official racing name of Secretariat as a three year-old horse, but really a determined owner. It is about her passion for horseracing and her belief in what her family values. It’s also about going against what most would call conventional wisdom in sports and finances--all of which what the sport of horse racing bets on. Add to all these factors that this owner is a typical housewife in the late 60s where women are expected to be conservative. The owner is Mrs. Helen Bates “Penny” Tweedy, played by Diane Lane (Unfaithful and The Perfect Storm) takes over her father’s Chenery family horse farm at a very difficult time. Her mother has passed away and her father, played by Scott Glenn (Training Day) is barely able to run the stable of horses with his ailing health.
Lane and director Randall Wallace (Braveheart and Pearl Harbor) establish “Penny’s” character well and early as a lady-like character--but one who is not going to be anybody’s fool. She is all about family and very much an independent thinker, just as her father taught her to be. There are subtle instances in dialog with her father that being a housewife was not what he expected from her. There is an excellent plot twist that you do not expect when everyone is against her to continue her seemingly disastrous plans, that also shows her father’s wisdom and thoughts about is only daughter. Those against her include her brother and lawyer husband, played by Dylan Baker (Spiderman 3) and Dylan Walsh (The Stepfather, Nip Tuck) who do not want to go broke over an old and unprofitable family business.
There are specific things you expect to learn about the sport and its business that are at first daunting, but you learn quickly. The initial drama of how Big Red was born is essential to the film and the movie teaches how the sport creates champion horses based on creatively breeding the right “Sire” with the right “Mare” to create the perfect offspring--not to mention ironically how the sport once regarded as the “sport of kings” is turned upside down by a woman. Once the birth of “Big Red” happens, the spirit of the young colt’s life brings the good fortune the “Penny” and her family. Even as many believe she should “cash in” on the value Big Red’s potential before it’s too late, her instincts to continue to believe in her newly famous horse make for excellent racing action. Secretariat’s natural abilities displayed on film make you wonder how an animal can possess such amazing power and intelligence.
The movie details Secretariat’s rise to win many races as a fast young colt, but doubt is cast when as a three year old he must now enter in longer distances to attain the Triple Crown that many do not believe he can do. Penny believes Secretariat is a great combination of parents whom were a fast, short distance running “Sire” and a “Mare” that was great at long distances. Secretariat proved many opponents wrong, breaking records in time and margins of victory at both distances. A few of the specific historic details are changed for effect, such as the fact that the eccentric trainer Lucien Larin—played John Malkovich—was not Secretariat’s original trainer, but was actually Lucien’s son Roger Larin before Lucien took over. However, these details do not take away from the film but actually help keep the pace of the film moving as you learn about “Penny’s” actions as they affect her husband and impressionable children—two of whom are young girls. They ultimately learn the lesson “Penny’s” father taught her growing up; “Run your own race.” With a horse that always starts in last place and run’s its own race, this movie will make you feel like the owner and trainer in the stands holding your breath with anxious anticipation of the thrilling and historic inevitable. Don’t be surprised if you see the real-life “Penny” Chenery’s excitement on film!
3 and ½ stars out of 4 stars
\\\
Guest Blogger: Radcliff Angus
No comments:
Post a Comment