Secretariat

[medic1 User Find all posts View Profile Close medic1]

enjoyed this move but frustrated me... this stuff makes me crazy. great popcorn movie but a few scenes where over the top when they didn't have to be.

spoilers*******

a few scenes could've been cut or edited. her scene in the barn where she is stating this is a champion horse... less emotion. more determination because of her personall rejection.
the black dude who ran out after big red ate his two buckets... i thought the guy had been hitting jello shots. awkward.

despite being heartbroken about her family, they were never included except for rolling up on the bed and crying. bring them in a couple of race shots. yeah, they were there for the preakness, but not in the beginning.. are you friggin' me? i'd been going crazy if this was my mother's horse who was the biggest thing at that time.

[asjah8 Member Find all posts View Profile Close asjah8]

Re: Secretariat

i saw this last night. it wasn't bad, beautiful imagery, good acting etc. it was just kind of hollow... i bought the dvd for seabiscuit, that's how much i liked that film. this film didn't have that great emotional core.

imho, it wasn't really about anything at it's center.

the story of seabiscuit, the owner, the jockey, and horseracing during the great depression; it all supported a theme of becoming a winner and every character in the film needed to overcome something.

the story of secretariat was about a superhorse and an unstoppable housewife.

[EddieCoyle Regular Find all posts View Profile Close EddieCoyle]

Re: Secretariat

I quickly read a review of this and thought it was a serious drama. I guess you could say it was, but the theater on Friday night was full of kids with parents. It seemed like a glorified Disney movie.

Not terribly inspiring and schmaltzy. The structure bothered me. He wins the Kentucky Derby and there are still questions about him??? And the movie presses on for another 30 minutes? So what if he didn't win the triple crown. There really was no suspense for most of it. Maybe I knew the story of Secretariat so that did not help, but they tried to make this an underdog story, a la Seabiscuit, but it was just not there.

The family angle bothered me too. One moment of tension that she's living this other life (and the weak story line about the daughter being some kind or protester-hippie), but that too fizzled.

This is no Black Stallion, maybe the best horse movie.

[asjah8 Member Find all posts View Profile Close asjah8]

Re: Secretariat

good to know i'm not the only one who felt a little off...

as i mentioned, it wasn't bad, there was definitely something to work with here... i just hesitate to say it was as completely developed as i believe it could have been. we all know secretariat was a superhorse and since he's not known for being an underdog, it falls to the family story to carry the emotional highs and lows here. i kept expecting to see a marriage on the rocks, pulled back from near divorce by the excitement of the horse's triumph, but it didn't happen. we danced around the subject, but didn't explore it, if that makes sense?

ah heck, i mean, i'm a noob myself and if i've learned anything so far, it's that this stuff is hard to do. so cheers to 'em for working it, eh?