MOVIE REVIEW
'Hidalgo' a bold return to simpler times

By Jack Garner
Gannett News Service

HIDALGO PG-13 Three Stars (Good) In "Hidalgo," half-Indian cowboy Frank Hopkins (Viggo Mortensen) and his horse, Hidalgo, face many strange events — including a sandstorm — as they compete in the Ocean of Fire, a 3,000-mile race across an Arabian desert, for a $10,000 prize.

On his way to Arabia, Frank Hopkins (Viggo Mortensen, left) crosses paths with the aristocratic Lady Anne Davenport (Louise Lombard) and Major Davenport (Malcolm McDowell) in "Hidalgo." Touchstone Pictures

It's all in "Hidalgo," a rousing if occasionally overwrought adventure saga that plays like a cinematic buffet table, piled high with "Seabiscuit," "Bite the Bullet," "Lawrence of Arabia," "The Last Samurai" and "The Black Stallion." Take a little of this and a bit of that, and — voila! — a movie!

Mortensen stars as Frank Hopkins, a disillusioned American cowboy who's challenged to race his beloved American mustang, Hidalgo, in the Ocean of Fire, a 3,000-mile race across the Arabian Peninsula. His competition will be the cream of legendary Arabian horses, ridden by the prideful representatives of great Bedouin tribes. Along the way, the cowboy rediscovers his own identity and regains his long-lost self-respect.

"Hidalgo" is based on the memoirs of Frank Hopkins, a legendary 19th century endurance horseman — though many modern historians dismiss Hopkins' claims as just so many tall tales. In fact, "Hidalgo" has fueled much heated Internet debate, especially among horse fanciers. To be honest, who cares? As the master director John Ford once said, "When the legend becomes truth, print the legend."

"Hidalgo" has been filmed in the old-fashioned boy's adventure mold by Joe Johnston, who's already shown an affinity for such entertainment with "The Rocketeer," "Jumanji" and "October Sky."

Because it's such a long race, Hopkins has plenty of opportunities to engage a wide variety of good and bad characters, including a wise old Arab (the wonderful Omar Sharif) and a scheming English noblewoman (Louise Lombard). But in his efforts to add variety to the first-rate race scenes, Johnston and writer John Fusco add an unnecessary and intrusive 25-minute episode in which Hopkins rescues a kidnapped Arabian girl. The sequence seems to have dropped into "Hidalgo" from another movie.

But despite such occasional miscues, "Hidalgo" generally provides rousing Saturday matinee fun. It's one of those movies for folks who say they don't make 'em like they used to.

Rated PG-13, with violence, innuendo.