The story of Secretariat is such a famous one. Like The Social Network and The King’s Speech, it is one of films released this year that has a true story, and the story you see on screen. Much is made of scenes that might have been nothing but an exchanged glance in real life.¬† All three films are made more rich by our own perceptions of those stories. And no story has a greater shimmer looking back than Secretariat, arguably the greatest race horse ever.
The story is so grand, in fact, that not much is needed to make a film about Secretariat succeed: one really just needs to get out of the way and “let the horse run.” A list of Secretariat’s accolades includes:
He was the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years, setting records at the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes that still stand.
He appeared on the covers of Time, Newsweek and Sports Illustrated in the same week.
He was the only nonhuman chosen by ESPN as one of the “50 Greatest Athletes of the Century.”
For those who were alive during Secretariat’s races, nothing was more awe-inspiring than the thought of such a runner. Everyone was in love with him. Many still are. The best thing this film does is lay out many of the smaller details that flesh out Secretariat’s story.
Secretariat was not the ideal choice at birth. It took the wits of an unlikely horsewoman, Penny Chenery (Diane Lane) to see what combination of traits might lead to a triple crown winner.¬†¬† So when she lost the coin toss, she got the second favorite.¬†¬† That sets Secretariat up as an unlikely winner, which everyone who knows the story knows wasn’t true about him. But there needed to be a conflict or there wouldn’t be a movie. So the conflict became how Chenery overcame the obstacle of being female in a male-driven field to help Secretariat win.
The movie does drive home the point that Secretariat’s success was due not just to him being the right horse, but also having the right people owning him, grooming him, training him and riding him.
The movie isn’t particularly deep where the characters are concerned. It does what’s required of it, which is to present a moving account of Secretariat’s short but memorable reign. Diane Lane was perfectly cast as Chenery – she resembles her and seems to have the same gentle manner. John Malkovich gets all of the best lines and is appropriately loopy, if a bit out of place.
The star of the film, the focus of it, the reason to see it is to relive the races, but especially that race, which won Big Red the Triple Crown. It is a showstopper. No horse has ever won by such a length since.
So moving is this final race, it’s impossible to watch it without feeling your heart skip a beat. To me, there wasn’t much they could do to get in the way of it. As it is, director Randall Wallace does a good job sharing the story with the human characters, even if we’re just really waiting around to see what the horse does. I would have preferred more scenes with the horse and his famous groomer, Eddie Sweat (played by the wonderful Nelsan Ellis) and Secretariat. We see how close they were in a few scenes towards the end, but Sweat spent more time with Secretariat than any other person. He’s in the movie, just not enough.
I have to say that, despite its flaws, I loved this movie. I loved it in the way I would have at 11 years old, being dumped out of my mom’s Datsun 280Z and into the multi-plex in Van Nuys. It would have taken me to another world and brought back the feeling of watching something that requires nothing of you except to sit back and enjoy the show. It’s old fashioned like that.
I don’t know what Secretariat is going to do Oscar-wise. If it makes a good deal of bank it could be a Best Pic nominee, and maybe Diane Lane will get swept along with it. ¬†It could be looking at a cinematography nod — or if it is a big hit with the AMPAS, it could get all of the tech nods along with Best Pic. ¬†I really do feel like they are trying to go Big Hollywood still, with ten nominees.
Or it will be savaged by critics and remain a favorite of people in states who don’t read reviews.
A worthwhile piece on Secretariat in Sports Illustrated:
The Secretariat phenomenon, with all the theater and passion that would attend it, had begun. Florio was right, of course, and by the end of Secretariat’s 2-year-old season, everyone else who had seen him perform knew it. All you had to do was watch the Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga. I was at the races that August afternoon with Arthur Kennedy, an old-time racetracker and handicapper who had been around the horses since the 1920s, and even he had never seen anything quite like it. Dropping back to dead last out of the gate, Secretariat trailed eight horses into the far turn, where jockey Ron Turcotte swung him to the outside. Three jumps past the half-mile pole the colt exploded. “Now he’s runnin’!” Kennedy said.
You could see the blue-and-white silks as they disappeared behind one horse, reappeared in a gap between horses, dropped out of sight again and finally reemerged as Secretariat powered to the lead off the turn. He dashed from last to first in 290 yards, blazing through a quarter in :22, and galloped home in a laugher to win by six. It was a performance with style, touched by art. “I’ve never seen a 2-year-old do that,” Kennedy said quietly. “He looked like a 4-year-old out there.”
So that was when I knew. The rest of Secretariat’s 2-year-old campaign‚Äîin which he lost only once, in the Champagne Stakes when he was disqualified from first to second after bumping Stop the Music at the top of the stretch‚Äîwas simply a mopping-up operation. At year’s end, so dominant had he been that he became the first 2-year-old to be unanimously voted Horse of the Year.