365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 271 - Secretariat

One of the big fall movies of 2010, Secretariat arrived on home video this week. if you did not see Secretariat in the movies I recommend you rent a download a copy for your weekend viewing. 

I remember watching the Belmont Stakes in June of 1973 and seeing Secretariat do something that no other horse in history has done before or since. It was an astounding athletic event and the movie captures the suspense and glorious achievement of that moment perfectly.

All biographies based on true events are hampered by the audience knowing the outcome before the film starts. The writer must make the events leading up to the conclusion dramatic enough to carry the audience along. The writers were handicapped by the fact that the featured athlete was a horse and also, while most great sports movies feature an underdog, Secretariat was always a top performer from his first race.

Instead the movie focus on Secretariat's owner Penny Chenery-Tweedy (Diane Lane), a housewife in Denver who has to step into a man's world and takes her horse all the way to the Triple Crown. In a sub-plot the film also follows horse trainer Lucien Laurin (John Malkovich) a man who has spent his life almost getting to the winner's circle. These two people are the underdogs the film uses to tell Secretariat's story. 

Secretariat is a film that uses CGI (computer generated images) to great extent to recreate actual events. The races themselves are stunningly realistic and the high contrast cinematography really puts you in the race. I watched the film on high def Blu-ray but the racing scenes make me wish I had seen this movie on the big screen.

The dramatic tension between Penny and her husband and brother is not fully realized, but the Secretariat is the star of this movie and director Randall Wallace lovingly recreates the great races of 1973 that showed the world what a true wonder this horse was.

At The Movie House rating *** stars

*note - create a great triple feature with the following films about the sport of kings:

The Black Stallion

Seabiscuit

Secretariat