Hidalgo

Hidalgo and Frank Hopkins were a riding team at the turn of the last century, both as pony express employees—and in long, cross-country racing. Viggo Mortensen is enchanting as Hopkins, a character he creates out of historical records and his own bluff interpretation of the laconic cowboy. Hidalgo, the horse is delightfully depicted for those of us who enjoy anthropomorphic portrayals of animals. A Lakota Sioux/European mixed blood expatriate of the Sioux nation, Hopkins’ affinity for the Bedouin and their horses is nicely explored as the parallels of life and cultural history with the middle-eastern horse culture allows for some moments. Hidalgo achieves a simple story of a simple man, on an ordinary horse, that together, reach towards greatness.

Frank T. Hopkins lived a life spanning the 18th and 19th centuries; Viggo Mortenson, Omar Sharif and Zuleikha Robinson are the main characters with the most character development. Unlike Seabiscuit or Spirit, Stallion of the Cimarron, this film stays on the horse portraying Hidalgo, engendering not only a satisfying level of horse moments, and also allows for the development of the relationship of Hidalgo and Hopkins. There is also a sequence where 250 horses are on camera, which ends much too quickly, and is far short of the film footage that could have ended up on the big screen given the spectacle of 250 horses flowing over the hills. After all, the assumption is the viewer wants to see a horse or two in a positive light, otherwise the movie would have been called the life and times of Hopkins.

Touchstone Pictures distributed this Touchstone/Hidalgo Productions/Casey Silver Productions collaboration.

METAPHYSICAL OVERVIEW: 
A movie that creates the epic feel of life and also gives a satisfactory experience of an historical event is an accomplishment to savor often—as one can do with Hidalgo.


Against The Ropes

To achieve arc for the completely made-up character, (played by Meg Ryan,) this Jackie Kallen is a Boxing Promoter’s Executive Assistant, giving the script the feel of being cobbled together from notions of what would sell, instead of what would be art. Given the total disinclination of the producers to allow anything of Jackie Kallen to shine through onto the screen in Against The Ropes, this movie didn’t get much attention to craft after the initial pitch and treatment. That indifference to these fine actors or the composites they represent of real people in Kallen’s life, upon reflection, is not OK. The resulting movie, a collaboration of Paramount Pictures, Cort/Madden Productions and Moviemakers Productions—is not really anything more than an OK film—and certainly not an OK depiction of Kallen’s life and times. OK? OK.

METAPHYSICAL OVERVIEW: 
The odd woman in the odd profession will often find her fulfillment and manner of greatness, ‘despite being a woman.’ Jackie Kallen was such a woman in a truly secluded profession. She is alive and well as a motivational speaker these days, keeping an occasional hand in the boxing profession.


SPRING COMEDIES WORTH A MENTION: 
Welcome to Mooseport with Ray Romano and Gene Hackman; Eurotrip, a foolishly entertaining teen flick and another Owen Wilson vehicle, Starsky and Hutch of olde TV fame, teaming him again with Ben Stiller, a charming and quirky chemistry begun in Zoolander and The Royal Tennenbaums.

UPCOMING DRAMA: 
Don’t miss the long awaited Dirty Dancing, Havana Nights sequel, held for political reasons and now, finally, out in wide release; and possibly The Dreamers, a French look at the 60’s.

Not for the faint-of-heart Thrillers: 
Twisted (Ashley Judd, Samuel Jackson,) and Secret Window (Johnny Depp, John Turturro.)

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