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Hidalgo
2004 All photos in this article are © Touchstone Pictures. All rights reserved. |
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Hidalgo
2004 All photos in this article are © Touchstone Pictures. All rights reserved. |
On The Shelves Rating: 3 Chilled bottles of bubbly and 2 popped corks. |
| My mother always said that if you didn't have a good cry you'd wasted your nickel at the flickers. Of course, all you tough guys won't cry. Sentimental twaddle, that's what you'll say and--you'll be wrong. The last thing Hidalgo is, is sentimental. But it will move you. [Jessie’s Theatre Viewing Rule #2: Always, always have a tissue in your pocket. You never know!] This is in fact, a coming of age film: one man's harsh journey to find within his own heart the power to forgive himself for being human. And who helps him on this self-inflicted quest? His best friend of course! His horse. |
| Framed within the great endurance race know
as the Ocean of Fire (3,000 miles across the Arabian Desert to the sea), Hidalgo's
Viggo Mortensen presents a rugged leading man who doesn't care what is said about him
but please, don't ever insult his horse. Together, horse and rider discover what they're
truly made of; as well as what's important in this old world. Joe Fusco, an award-winning historian of the Native American culture coupled with the Cowman culture has written a screenplay based on the life of a man born to the Old West of the United States of America: a footnote in history, Frank Hopkins' tale captured Fusco and thank God say I. (I first became aware of Mr. Fusco in 1988 when his script for Young Guns showed up on the screen and was, to my way of thinking [untrained historian that I am] the way to tell the tale of William Bonny, aka Billy the Kid.) Joe Fusco rocks. |
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| Now remember that I'm a girl and in my early youth, Walter Farley's (1915-1989) stories of 'The Black Stallion' were all that I cared about. A full-blooded Arabian Stallion and the young boy whom he rescued in a shipwreck... well, a horse was not a horse to me. A woman growed now, I switch my allegiance from Arabians to the mustang (fickle female). Hidalgo is my hero. And Viggo Mortensen's as well apparently. At the end of the Hidalgo shoot, Mortensen bought T.J. the horse and keeps him quite well I understand. They're good mates. |
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Go see this film. It's a handsome story told in the classic style: Brilliant Hollywood, a horse race, an engaging hero, a clever and dangerous blonde villain, a beautiful, dark-haired heroine who wants only what's good for the hero (to her own dissatisfaction, I might add) and her father, the Sheikh of sheikhs. |
| Now we come to it: what gives this film that extra added oooomph.... Omar Sharif: from the first moment we see him on the screen he takes the film away. At 72 Sharif has more presence on the screen than the horse for God's sake! The understated dignity of the man as he strides through this epic is exquisite. From the obvious passion for stories of the romanticized 'old west' as told by Wild Bill Hickock to the true and crystallized love of his daughter, Sharif makes mincemeat of the rest of the cast. And T.J.'s tough to beat. He has all the good comic turns. |
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The photography by Shelly Johnson is untouchable. Talk about your DPs! I love you Freddie Francis (Glory 1989) but this one tops your best work. And please leave us not ignore Joe Johnston, as he's the Director of this gem and he brought it altogether. I feel like I'm giving an awards speech here. I suspect I may well be. There's a lot of good-looking stuff coming up and my corks are popping all over the place, but man. Y'all are gonna have to be right on the money to get that third cork out of my bottle and top this film. It's a month already that Hidalgo has been out there and if you haven't seen it yet then go for it. You'll not be disappointed. It's worth every damned penny you scratch together. Go see what kind of a man this country can produce, and what kind of a horse. This is one heroic ending. Flat out: son, that man can sit a horse. They're a tough act to follow and believe it or not, this really is one tough room. Trust me, when I don't like it, you'll know. Hidalgo translates literally from the 'old' Spanish [fijo dalgo] as "son of something." This from the Miriam-Webster Dictionary: here's hoping these folks know their Spanish, for if they do, then the final shot of Hidalgo makes perfect sense as the father let's the son go to follow his true calling. Don't miss it. —Jessie Lilley |
This review first appeared in On The Shelves — out there in the ether...... |
