The best part of the movie is Hidalgo, a little mustang that won't give up.
I really wanted to like this movie. I mean Viggo Mortensen . . . Alas, the movie's opening 15 minutes or so are nearly identical to the opening of The Last Samurai, including Frank Hopkins' predictable alcoholic response. Do cowboys ever do anything but feel guilty, get drunk and become hucksters?
But it's when we get to Arabia that the film really loses it for me because all of the Arabs are portrayed at best as cliches (yes, even Omar Sharif's character), and at worst as racist caricatures, including the puerile attitude toward Islam.
Sadly, with very little effort the film could have just as easily developed real characters and then the horse would have had something to work with.
I really wanted to like this movie. I mean Viggo Mortensen . . . Alas, the movie's opening 15 minutes or so are nearly identical to the opening of The Last Samurai, including Frank Hopkins' predictable alcoholic response. Do cowboys ever do anything but feel guilty, get drunk and become hucksters?
But it's when we get to Arabia that the film really loses it for me because all of the Arabs are portrayed at best as cliches (yes, even Omar Sharif's character), and at worst as racist caricatures, including the puerile attitude toward Islam.
Sadly, with very little effort the film could have just as easily developed real characters and then the horse would have had something to work with.