Tetrady
not as good as all the hype
Steineded
How sad is this?
Marva-nova
Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.
Guy DeMatties
Although the movie has been "Disneyed" (however, less than the usual Disney fare) the film is an inspiring recount of Secretariat's run to the 1973 Triple Crown of thoroughbred horse racing. The horse itself inspired admiration from many sports lovers, and even the casual racing fan, as being a "special" athlete, albeit the four-legged variety. He made many lists of the top 100 athletes of the 20th century, and has been memorialized continuously by the horse racing community. This film puts his legend on celluloid for everyone to see. It also tells the story of Penny Chenery Tweedy, who elbowed her way into a man's world to save the family horse farm. Some of the facts might be stretched and dramatized, but the message it sends is one of remarkable will and measures the heart of a champion. A good watch, especially the Triple Crown re-creations.
sddavis63
I don't care all that much for horse racing. Truth be told I find it completely boring and have no interest in it at all. I do, however, remember watching one horse race. I was 9 years old at the time. My family weren't much into horse racing, either, but there had been so much publicity about this particular race that they decided to watch it, so I had to watch it with them. It was June 9, 1973 - the Belmont Stakes, the race that Secretariat won by 31 lengths to win the Triple Crown. If I've ever watched any other horse race, I don't remember it. But I do remember watching that one and being caught up in the Secretariat legend, so although I missed it in the theatre, eventually I had to watch this movie.Yes. It's made by Disney, so for the most part it's extremely family friendly. Does it have a bit of a fantasy element about it? Yes, especially as regards Penney Tweedy (Secretariat's owner, played by Diane Lane.) She wasn't quite the outsider or underdog the movie portrays her as. She had won two of the three Triple Crown races the year before with a horse called Riva Ridge, and Secretariat himself had, after all, been named horse of the year as a 2 year old. There was a lot of emphasis (really right up to the portrayal of the Triple Crown races) on Tweedy's family, about whom I didn't really care all that much to be honest. Why would I care that she had a hippie daughter? Why did it matter? The story around her father and the hiring of Lucien Laurin (John Malkovitch) was also a piece of Disney fantasy. Laurin was already working for the Chenery family, and had trained Riva Ridge for them.So there are some historical problems with the movie, as there usually are. Real life is apparently never good enough for Hollywood - Disney or not. The movie overcomes those historical issues, though, with an absolutely superb portrayal of Secretariat's performances in the 1973 Triple Crown. Those races were brilliantly recreated and choreographed. Even though you know that Secretariat is going to win, you're on the edge of your seat watching, especially in the Belmont as Secretariat and Sham go neck and neck until Secretariat finally starts to pull away and leaves the field in his dust. No matter what the problems might have been before the portrayal of the Triple Crown (and there really weren't that many; certainly not enough to make this anything even approaching a bad movie) that portrayal alone is worth watching. (9/10)
Jim Dewar
There are quite a few "feel good" movies out there; most of them suitable for all. Movies such as "Sea Bisquit", "Apollo 13", and others are really wonderful. But this one...."Secretariat" takes the cake - IMHO.I have two granddaughters (4 and 1 1/2). The four year old has watched this movie (according to her mom) "'bout a hunert times"!!!!Still...in the Belmont Stakes sequence, the 4 year old cheers on "Big Red" the entire way!!Yes, there are "lessons" to be learned. Not quiting when all is running against you; hiring the "tried and true" when others around you are saying you're wrong. Keeping family as close as possible, but sticking to your guns....and more.But the horse racing can't be beat!Don't miss this one!
gretz-569-323863
I gave "Secretariat" 8 stars instead of the 7 it probably deserved because it's one of those movies I watch every time it's on cable. For whatever reason, it is ridiculously entertaining, as long as you don't mind a little cornpone "Disney-fication" here and there.John Malkovich is wonderful as always, playing it very broadly, and sporting a dreadful "French-Canadian" accent, but it's a fun role and he has fun with it. And pretty soon they're going to be talking about "the ageless Diane Lane." She's approaching 60 and she looks just amazing. It must have been difficult for her to play someone who was not only a real person, but was also there on the set, watching her. No pressure there, eh? This is definitely not a study of the "soft underbelly" of horse racing. In "Secretariat," the stables are always shown in sunset and soft focus, the grooms and the secretaries are always full of homespun wisdom, and everything turns out OK in the end. And the Tweedys are one of those picture-perfect families you can't help but envy. "How can I raise a couple million dollars to keep my racehorse?" is a problem I'd like to have.But put all that stuff aside. You will love this movie for the racing scenes! The "horse cam" angle is really interesting, especially when you read about the process the filmmakers had to go through to get those shots. (There are other horsey little pleasures too, like the scene where the colt is born.) However, I echo some of the other reviewers in wishing that the filmmakers had used more of the real races. (They only showed the actual tape of one race; all the others were re-creations.) I get that they wanted to be poetic, but there was nothing more poetic than the real Secretariat.I remember watching that Belmont race on TV with a group of friends. And that moment when Secretariat pulled away, you could almost see the horse thinking "OK, let's do it"--and he just took off. It was one of the most remarkable things I've ever seen. This movie does a nice job of letting us share that excitement again.
