Secretariat
Director: Randall Wallace
With: Diane Lane, John Malkovich, Margo Martindale, Fred Dalton Thompson, Dylan Walsh, James Cromwell, Otto Thorwath, etc.
I don’t care much about horseracing, but I watch the Triple Crown races every year, the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont. In 1973, Secretariat became the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years, and his track records still stand. This horse was fast.
The film about his career is a feel-good movie about a woman, Penny Tweedy (Lane), who inherits a horse farm from her father and must overcome sexism and skepticism from the racing community and doubts from her husband (Walsh), who resents her time away from the family.
Tweedy hires an eccentric trainer, Lucien Laurin (Malkovich), who dresses like a color-blind pimp. Their prospects for success are zilch, but then they have this magical big colt they call Big Red. The racing association won’t accept that name, so they call him Secretariat.
The best thing about this movie is the racing scenes. The camera work is the best I have ever seen, and it takes you into the race. You can practically taste the dirt in your mouth.
The rest is pretty standard stuff. Not bad, but nothing you haven’t seen before. Lane, Malkovich and the rest of the cast are competent and easy to watch. But, when the nags aren’t running, it’s a made-for-TV movie. Good for pre-adolescent girls.
B-