Movie Review: Hidalgo

By Nell Minow

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What Parents Should Know
This movie has a lot of violence, including swords, knives, and guns. We see the result of the massacre of Native Americans at Wounded Knee, with dead bodies everywhere. Characters and horses are shot, impaled, stabbed, and beheaded and one is threatened with castration. There are many tense scenes of peril, including quicksand. Characters drink and Hopkins develops a drinking problem. A character smokes a hookah. There is some strong language and some crude humor. A woman offers Hopkins money and sex to get him to throw the race. The problem of prejudice against women and against those of other races, particularly mixed races, is a theme of the movie.

Families who see this movie could talk about why Hopkins was so conflicted about his heritage and how his experience in the race made him understand it differently. They might want to look this tribute to "the legend of Frank Hopkins" and comments like these from historians who say that he fabricated his stories.

Common Sense Media Review
In 1890, courier Frank Hopkins (Viggo Mortenson) and his dappled mustang Hidalgo were the undefeated champions of endurance riding competitions, races of hundreds, even thousands of miles. After Hopkins delivers a dispatch that leads to the massacre of 300 Native Americans at Wounded Knee, he is sick at heart. He starts drinking, stops racing, and gets a job re-enacting cowboy and Indian battles in the Buffalo Bill show. Then he is challenged to compete in the world's oldest endurance race, the 3000 mile race across the Arabian desert called the Ocean of Fire. His friends raise the entry fee and he goes halfway around the world to see if he and Hidalgo are faster than the horses who have been bred for centuries to win the race.

His competition includes a horse owned by a powerful Shiekh (Omar Sharif), for whom winning is a matter of pride, and one owned by a titled Englishwoman (Louise Lombard), for whom it is a matter of money. A win would give her access to the finest thoroughbred Arabians for breeding. Hopkins and Hidalgo face treacherous conditions and even more treacherous competitors. A sandstorm, locusts, quicksand, and a detour to rescue a kidnapped princess provide many opportunities for swashbuckling action and spectacular cinematography.

The action and scenery are entertaining. But the script is overly simple and formulaic. It's too violent for a PG audience, but not thoughtful or original enough for a PG-13 audience. There is a lot for the eyes, but not enough for the heart.

Parents should know that the movie has a lot of violence, including swords, knives, and guns. We see the result of the massacre of Native Americans at Wounded Knee, with dead bodies everywhere. Characters and horses are shot, impaled, stabbed, and beheaded and one is threatened with castration. There are many tense scenes of peril, including quicksand. Characters drink and Hopkins develops a drinking problem. A character smokes a hookah. There is some strong language and some crude humor. A woman offers Hopkins money and sex to get him to throw the race. The problem of prejudice against women and against those of other races, particularly mixed races, is a theme of the movie.

Families who see this movie could talk about why Hopkins was so conflicted about his heritage and how his experience in the race made him understand it differently. They might want to look this tribute to "the legend of Frank Hopkins" and comments like these from historians who say that he fabricated his stories.

Families who enjoy this movie may also enjoy Raiders of the Lost Ark and other movies about long distance races, including The Wind and the Lion, Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, and The Great Race. Families interested in Annie Oakley will enjoy the highly fictionalized Irving Berlin musical, Annie Get Your Gun and the more accurate and very touching Rabbit Ears: Annie Oakley.