Hidalgo
(2004 — Viggo Mortensen, Zuleikha Robinson, Omar Sharif)

OK, first things first, Hidalgo is the horse’s name.

The movie is “based on the life of Frank T. Hopkins” (played by Mortensen). I’ll be honest — every since he wore Aragorn’s mantle, Mortensen gets at least my consideration for any role he plays. (Yeah, call me a LotR geek.)

As I have read in other reviews, “based on the life of” means that almost none of the events in the movie actually took place. But then, those who get their history from Hollywood are probably the same people that think that Michael Moore makes documentaries.

Hopkins was a pony express man, who also participated in (and won many) cross-country horse races. He is part Souix, and so when he delivers a message to Wounded Knee, he is indirectly responsible for the slaughter of many of his people. This sends him into an alcoholic tail-spin and a denial of his heritage.

Eventually he is goaded into entering a much longer cross-country race — 3000 miles across the Arabian Desert — a race that is over 1000 years old and has claimed many lives, includings one of the sons of Sheikh Riyadh (Sharif), who is in charge of the race. The Sheikh takes great pride in his horses and largely wishes to show that they are better than Hidalgo. However, Hopkins also discovers that the Sheikh is an afficianado of the American Old West, and so some of his interest is simply due to the fact that Hopkins is a true representative of his fascination.

The race has intrigue in and of itself, as the men strive to win it — often at high cost. There is also a kidnapping of the Sheikh’s only daughter that Hopkins must foil. And a bit of romance and attempts at romance thrown in.

The language rarely roams beyond d*** and h***. The rating is largely for violence (of the action/adventure type) and a couple double-entendres. There is a slightly cheesy “Hopkins and the Sheikh learn acceptance and understanding of other cultures” undercurrent and a bit of Indian mysticism, but neither is heavy-handed or crow-barred into the movie.

All in all, this is largely an action/adventure movie in the vein of the Indiana Jones films. While we sit around waiting for Lucas and Spielberg to get off their cans and create Indy 4 before Harrison Ford turns 120, Hidalgo is a good movie to hold us off.