Left disillusioned by the senseless massacre at Wounded Knee, courier Frank T. Hopkins (Viggo Mortensen) takes to drink and accepts a job as a stuntman/rider in Buffalo Bill Cody’s traveling show. When representatives of Sheikh Riyadh (Omar Sharif) offer him a slot in the annual Ocean of Fire horse race, Frank reluctantly agrees. No one believes Frank (an infidel) and his mustang Hidalgo (an animal from an impure, base breed) stand a chance in the competition, but Frank sees winning the race--which consists of a dangerous run across 3000 miles of open desert--as a matter of pride, both for him and his faithful steed.

CRITIQUE

Hidalgo is based on a true story. There really was a man named Frank T. Hopkins, and Frank T. Hopkins owned a horse named Hidalgo. But that’s it as far as historical accuracy goes. Depending on whom you ask, the real Hopkins was either a boastful braggart or a habitual liar, so this throwback to the exotic action flicks of Hollywood’s Golden Age is about as plausible as an installment of your average Buck Rogers serial and about as factually sound as The Babe Ruth Story. But who cares? Despite some story flaws and overlength, Hidalgo is a damned entertaining movie, especially for anyone with a fondness for pulpy adventure tales.

The plot gives you pretty much everything you’d want and expect from a movie like this. The good guy and his trusty steed race across the desert, tangle with the hiss-worthy bad guys, meet a couple of attractive women, escape death more than a few times, and crack wise whenever the situations warrants. Some may see it as simplistic and old fashioned, but I again say who cares? Most modern movies of this ilk are either too campy (remember The Phantom?) or too serious (remember The Legend of the Lone Ranger?), but Hidalgo finds a good balance. The filmmakers obviously took their job seriously, but they realized their job was to show the audience a good time, and more often than not they pull it off.

I’d say much of the credit for the movie’s success belongs to director Joe Johnston, a guy whose efforts usually turn out far better than you’d expect. (I don’t care what anybody says, Jurassic Park III is more entertaining than it has it any right to be.) He’s the right age to have soaked up the basics of this sort of material from Saturday afternoon television. Just as he did in The Rocketeer, Johnston balances the hallmarks of an old-fashioned adventure flick with modern action and effects, with the end result offering the best of both worlds. And much like The Rocketeer, you’re either going to buy into Hidalgo early on and enjoy the ride or you’re going to spend the entire movie wondering why you’ve wasted your time (but you probably figured that out the moment you heard or read the plot description).

Mortensen is perfect as Hopkins. He both looks and sounds as if he’s spent years charging across the wilderness atop a resourceful horse. (I know that sounds strange, but I can think of no better way to put it.) Both his voice and face convey the characteristics of a man who’s seen it all, good and bad. And I know it goes without saying, but Sharif is fantastic. You’d expect the horse to get most of the laughs here, but there’s a winking nature to Sharif’s performance that provides the movie with many of its funniest moments. He obviously knew the character (who in a way could be the goofy cousin of his Sheriff Ali from Lawrence of Arabia) bore no resemblance whatsoever to any actual sheikh and decided to make the most of it. Smart move.

As is too often the case, the filmmakers have injected some needless modern sensibilities into the story. Writer John Fusco (who also wrote Young Guns and its sequel, both of which featured even more unnecessary modern trappings) makes Hopkins a little too enlightened and tosses in some hard-to-swallow gender politics with regards to the Sheikh’s daughter and her desire to break free from her people’s male-centric society. Material such as this would be somewhat easier to take in a more serious movie, but this is essentially the story of a guy and his horse racing across the desert, so the high-minded bits are both unnecessary and don’t jibe with the rest of the plot and the overall tone.

Perhaps this bothers me more than it should, but this sort of ill-conceived revisionism always has. I also wish the movie ran about twenty minutes shorter. The story drags in the section that separates the opening sequence and Frank’s trip across the ocean. I think the Wounded Knee scenes could easily have been cut, as the brief flashbacks to the massacre are more impactful than the sequence itself and also give us enough insight into just how angry, disturbed and disheartened Frank has become. On top of that, Johnston’s visual technique during the massacre apes Ridley Scott (especially the opening battle in Gladiator) just a tad too much, which I found to be quite distracting.

THE VIDEO

The 2.40:1/1080p transfer is quite pleasing, nicely reproducing the rich earth and sepia tones that dominate the visuals and imbue the movie with a nostalgic look. There’s a good sense of depth in the image (the desert often seems to stretch into infinity, even in the nighttime shots), and the level of detail is often very impressive. Digital noise, not surprisingly, is noticeable in several shots of the horizon, and a few of the more stylized shots (the Ridley-esque moments I just mentioned) are a good deal softer than the rest of the movie, although I’d wager this is at least somewhat intentional.

THE AUDIO

The uncompressed PCM 5.1 track is immersive and atmospheric. The action sequences, especially the locust swarm and dust storm, are especially dynamic. Bass action, as you might expect with all of those thundering hooves, is deep and tight. Dialogue is generally clear and intelligible, but there’s a problem with some lines early on.

During the scenes at the Buffalo Bill show, many lines exhibit a hollow, ADR-type quality, with most of the actors sounding as if they’ve been poorly dubbed. It’s an odd anomaly, and thankfully doesn’t last very long, but it bothered me enough to knock the rating. English, French, and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks are also included. English SDH, French, and Spanish subtitles are available.

THE EXTRAS

Sand and Celluloid (9 minutes) is a by-the-numbers EPK-style promo piece, mixing cast and crew interviews with film clips and behind the scenes footage.

America’s First Horse (21 minutes) offers a fairly interesting history lesson on the Spanish mustang.

Poke around on the extras page and you’ll find an Easter egg. It’s not much, nor is it hard to find, but at least it’s something.

FINAL THOUGHTS

As I said, you’re likely to either have a whale of a time with Hidalgo or not care for it in the least, and you probably already know which side you’ll come down on. So if you’re one of the lucky ones, grab it and enjoy.