Hidalgo
Year: 2004
Grade: C
Country: USA
Director: Johnston
Reviewit’s no seabiscuit. the acting wasn’t as good, the “true story” wasn’t actually true, the cinematography wasn’t as good, the costumes weren’t as good, the sound wasn’t as good, and the horse, well the horse was about equal. all this isn’t to say that seabiscuit was great or that hidalgo was all that bad, but hidalgo wasn’t as good as the film to which it will probably be most compared. after seeing the previews i was afraid it was going to be a “lone american whoops on a bunch of arabs” type picture, but it wasn’t; and that was a relief. it actually begins with the american slaughter of indians at wounded knee. and though there is some stereotyping of arabs as overly religious or superstitious, it’s really not that bad. in fact the worst person in the story was a white woman who was known as “the christian woman.” mostly it’s a movie about a cowboy and his horse. while they’re racing across the desert they get in a little trouble and meet a woman. nothing happens with the woman, but it’s a happy ending nonetheless. the special effects left something to be desired. there was one interesting shot on the boat trip across the atlantic. malcolm mcdowell is having a drink and talking with mortensen’s character. in the background a woman approaches. it’s a profile shot with mcdowell in the foreground. the woman and mcdowell are both in focus which, of course, requires some sort of trickery. i don’t know how they usually do it, but i know how it looks. it looks as if it were two different cameras – one focused on the foreground and one on the background. then they put the two together so that you can see both people in focus, usually that leaves a line of out of focus stuff around the person in the foreground. at any rate, in this shot it looked as though the person in the foreground was in front of a blue screen so it was a digital effect rather than an optical one. i think. anyway, i don’t think i’ve ever seen it done that way.
Watched in theater