Secretariat movie, a dissapointment - Sorry but thats the way I feel

[danceronice]

[QUOTE=farmgirl88;5159957]
well you SHOULD care about red Pollard’s lack of vision in one eye and what happened to Howard’s son before he got into horse racing. it all plays a key role in the entire story and Seabiscuit wouldn’t have been Seabiscuit without the stories, and trials and tribulations of those who owned, raced, and trained him to his wins.

You all are sittinghere complainging that you were execting to see 'pretty horse sgalloping around a track" and how the movie was all about the life of the Chenery’s. Well i hate to break it to you but Secretariat wouldnt have been Secretariat if it wasn’t for the colorful people who lit up his life and did their best to make him something. if you wanted to movie to be strictly about Secretariat than you would’ve gotten exactly what you say you didnt want…pretty horses galloping around the track and flying like pretty little butterflies…puhleeeze[/QUOTE]

You’re not capable of reading for comprehension, are you? Do I, rhetorically, care about Pollard or Howard? Not in the least. No relation, and I don’t find their stories compelling. No more than I give a crap about Penny Chenery (though I at least have a distantly tangental connection to her father, for the same reason Secretariat raced in blue and white.) Would the movie have been better without them? Of course not, it would have either been screamingly boring (pretty horsie running around the track) or the nightmare that was “The Story of Seabiscuit” (my vote for most misleading movie title EVER.) But for entertainment purposes, you need some sort of story, and that was the best they could do based on reality. Seabiscuit’s connections just happened to have a little more tragedy/triumph junk to exploit (and even an excuse to put the characters in a Mexican brothel, not that Disney would have gone there in a family flick even if they had the historical excuse.) Secretariat, they had to…gild things a bit.

The point of the post that you couldn’t get is, the producers had to make a movie about things that we as a ‘horse people’ might not find interesting, but to make a movie about something the majority of movie-goers can relate to. Frankly it doesn’t even matter all that much if it’s true (hello, Hidalgo, if you want a horse movie that goes from “Hollywoodized” to “blatant lies”) so long as it makes a good flick that Sally Soccermom will cough up $10 a ticket so her kids can see it in theaters. People tend to like sob stories and cheesy straightforward triumph-over-adversity stuff in their family films. Since a horse doesn’t actually have any awareness of all that, they do stuff about the people. Do I really care? No. Do I want this film to make money? As I have a financial interest, yes.

To the OP’s question about “how many saw his Belmont”, not me. I was born three months after Affirmed’s Triple Crown and have never seen a Triple Crown winner in the flesh.

[lauriep]

Actually, Kate Tweedy said that John Malkovich captured Lucien Lauren and his eccentricities very well. They didn’t look alike, but Malkovich really “got” Laurin.

[Jealoushe]

[QUOTE=Hunter’s Rest;5145084]
Repeat after me:
It.
Is.
Not.
A.
Documentary.[/QUOTE]

Exactly! Frig people, its a MOVIE. Did you miss the entire point; that the horse brought out the truth in these peoples
lives and showed them what makes them happy??

Isn’t that why we all love horses?

Movies are for entertainment…not truth. I didn’t get the feel like Sham was a bad horse, just his owner was threatened by Big Red.

But, what do I know…I cried at the end when he started making lengths…

[WB_Mom]

I remember watching him run in all 3 of the Triple Crown races. Looking back, I can see how special it really was.
It is a great story of an incredible athlete. I’m glad a film was finally made about him, as his story deserves it. Yes, I was able to put aside my ‘horsie knowledge’ and enjoy the movie for what it was. I found the film very well done and exactly what I would have expected from a venture of this sort. The story held my attention and the racing shots were beautiful.
There are so many great stories in the horse world, I hope the success of this film enables another story of a great horse to be put on film.

[farmgirl88]

I thought John Malcovitch was AMAZING!

[MBPearls]

Well, I’ll throw myself into the pile of those that loved this movie, because I knew going in it wasn’t going to be the 100% accurate portrayal that others here seem to think it needed to be (same people obviously freak out over every other “based on a true story” movie that takes a few liberties in the name of entertainment).

For the record, I loved Seabiscuit too - inaccuracies and all. They didn’t make War Admiral out to be a monster to piss you guys off (though you all seem personally offended) - I always took it out to be more like a metaphor - in all accounts, War Admiral WAS a monster of a horse, demolishing competition. While his size might have been average, he was NOT an average horse. They had to make him seem as awesome as he was, and if that meant adding 6 inches to make that point, well… who the heck cares? Some people are nitpicking things that DON’T MATTER in the long run of the story. Mich bigger than Seabiscuit, same height… the end result is still the same - the overwhelming favorite was beat by the horse that most wrote off as a fluke.

Not to take anything way from War Admiral, he was a Triple Crown winner. But really, is a sotry without a defined villain/hero any interesting? Look at every movie in existence - all have heroes and villains. Sorry if you get offended at who is defined as what - in a War Admiral movie, Seabiscuit would end up the villain. That’s the way it goes.

Going back to Secretariat, I wasn’t alive when he raced. Heck, I was 9 when he died. But I don’t feel he was done an injustice here. The parts people are nitpicking again are parts that DON’T MATTER in the story - WHO CARES if Penny wasn’t there when he was born? It was in the movie simply so we could see the start of Secretariat. Who cares if she didn’t actually drink Arnold Palmers (or whatever other ridiculousness people are going to focus on)? Disney had to make a movie everyone would want to see, and sorry, but my boyfriend (a non-horse person) isn’t going to go see a movie that is nothing but horses (which is why he hasn’t ever watched my DVD of Black Beauty or Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron).

Face it, the horsey side of society is a VERY small fraction of people in general - any movie that’s 100% horses isn’t going to do very well in theaters. Making it a drama adds another small group of people, making it a sports story in general adds another group, making is Disney adds a pretty good sized group (there was a huge group of kids in the showing I went to - not all horse-crazy, but all Disney-crazy).

I also don’t get people saying “It finished a dismal 3rd at the box office” - third is pretty huge. There are movies that come out every week that never crack the top 10!

I don’t know… maybe I don’t go in thinking that every little detail of every movie has to be 100% correct - heck, I can watch a ton of TV shows and documentaries if I’m looking for real life. But you know what? I live real life every day. I go to the movies to escape real life and to be entertained. I can suspend belief to watch aliens attacking earth and to watch criminals running from the police… so I certainly can suspend belief a bit on a story that gets all of the facts that matter right and fluffs up a bit of the story that doesn’t change the outcome in any way. While I’d love a Ken Burns documentary on horse racing (his baseball ones have blown me away) I’d appreciate them on a different level than a made for Hollywood movie. Just don’t see why some people have to have it all or nothing, and can’t sit back and enjoy both.

[DLee]

Every single non-horse person I have talked to has loved it.

[Coyoteco]

Penny Chenery was interviewed on a Denver radio program yesterday. The interview can be heard online

http://www.koaradio.com/pages/mikerosen.html

Mike Rosen show Friday (yesterday) 11:00 am hour

Interview of Penny Chenery, owner of Secretariat about Secretariat and the movie.

[FalseImpression]

I am listening to the interview and I love how candid Penny is!!!
Whatever people are criticizing in the movie for not being true, she agrees! Hollywood took liberties.

Asked about her communication with Secretariat before the race, she laughed and said “I would have had my hand bitten off!” lol
and also the coin toss, etc. (which is true), but she never had the time to study the mares/lineage/etc. It was just luck that she got the colt!!
Very interesting interview!

[Pronzini]

I saw it yesterday…Wow, where do you start?

The little things like entering a horse with no name, winning a trophy for a maiden race, broodmares in stalls, Claiborne with white fences, a jockey with silks sitting in the backstretch, an owner interviewing a jock at a restaurant etc etc actually didn’t bother me.

But the whole training Secretariat off the farm? What’s Eddie Sweat doing at the Meadow? What’s he doing in the stands during the race? What’s Lucien Lauren doing at the foaling barn? Why are announcers talking about Secretariat’s breeding? And where are the odds? I heard racetracks have some gambling going on occasionally.

There was none of the risk and the mystery and the gamble of being associated with these great horses. Movies often inflate heroes. This one actually diminished him a little which became completely evident when you saw the footage of the real race of the Preakness.

[LHL]

I thoroughly enjoyed the movie - it is [and was supposed to be] as much about Penny Tweedy as Secretatiat. There are so few movies about strong women. I was in my early 30’s at the time Secretariat was racing, and I know how hard it was for women to have any equality with men - it’s better now but the US ranks only 17th worldwide. I give Penny a lot of credit for stepping out of the role of housewife. And I give her husband a lot of credit for staying with her. At that time I had to jump through hoops to get a Texaco credit card, and a few years later couldn’t qualify for a mortage so I had to buy my house for cash.
The movie was good enough horse story to have me rooting for Secretariat to win - although I watched all his races and knew how they turned out.

[Quinn]

Loved it.

http://community.webshots.com/user/ballyduff

[SDHorses]

I was a young, horse crazy girl during the time that Secretariat won the Triple Crown. I have fond memories of watching this incredible horse race, sitting in font of the TV with my dad (who passed away six years ago).

This was a “feel good” movie and I enjoyed every minute of it, as did my husband (who asked me after the moving if I wanted to buy another hanoverian stallion!!) and my friends - We all loved it- great movie!

Can’t wait for the DVD…

[ponies123]

No real comment, I didn’t expect to go in loving the movie and didn’t come out loving the movie. But I’ll probably own it someday because I love horses. I knew it was Disney and they gave you what you always get from Disney, what more could you expect?

I was not alive (or even thought of) when Secretariat was reigning, but I have watched the ESPN Sports Century clips many times. My dad has it on VHS when I was a kid along with other Sports Century clips, and I’d steal that movie all the time to watch Secretariat. It brings tears to my eyes even now watching it, he was just that amazing. The move didn’t do that, but it’s just that. A movie. Made for money. Again, what more could you expect?

And I think Penny’s life/her daughter’s protesting is very important to Secretariat’s story. He was made even more amazing because in a time when the country WAS in war and “liberals” were trying to stand up/protest, etc. HE -A HORSE was on the cover of Time’s, SI, etc. I think 4 major magazines at the time featured Secretariat on the cover. They briefly touched on this in the film, but it’s very important when you compare it to the fight that Penny’s daughter was fighting standing up against the war. But it was the horse that got the covers. I think at that time he was somewhat of America’s “hero”. Something good to root for.

[SpecialEffects]

Yeah parts were Disney-fied but I expect that because they had to make it more acceptable to the non-horsey folks. I enjoyed it and love that they made a horse film!

[FalseImpression]

@LHL;5163504

And I give her husband a lot of credit for staying with her.

He did stay with her during the '73 racing season, but in the interview posted above, she says they divorced in '74.

I really enjoyed the movie, but I am not (and was too young to be) a racing fan! I watched the YouTube 4 part documentary and enjoyed it also, but it is a different approach altogether.

[KellyS]

I haven’t read through all the posts, but just wanted to say that I went to see this movie with my mom and dad this past weekend.

They, as non horse people, loved it. As did the rest of the audience that clapped at the end. And that is what these types of movies are about, in my mind…not having every detail perfect and making nit picking horse people happy, but giving people who aren’t horse people a view into our world and why we love horses so much.

I believe everyone walked out of that theater Saturday with an understanding of how wonderful horses are, and how they can inspire people. I work in the “real world” where most people haven’t even met a horse…and don’t understand the connection I have with my horses. But that movie made even my parents want to walk out into the barn when we got home and stroke my “boys” necks. It made them “get” why I love horses so much.

Just watching that moment in the movie where Diane Lane strokes Secretariat’s ears and forelock gave me goosebumps…that’s something I do everyday with Rally…and it just makes me feel at peace. So there were some really “real” horse moments in that movie.

I guess I just don’t get the diatribes about how disappointing this movie was…try looking at it for what it is…entertainment. Don’t like it, well, the world’s not coming to an end.

For me, it was a chance to share my love of horses with my family and enjoy watching those around me understand why horses are so amazing.

[mighty_mite]

I saw his races on TV at the time he actually ran them. I’d been waiting since 1960 for a triple crown winner so it was HUGE for me. The hype leading up to the Belmont was incredible. I got nothing like that from the movie. Nothing. I did like the movie but it was mostly centered on Penny. Not the horse. They so did not capture the feeling of the country and the character of Secretariat. Totally missed the boat on that one. At least in Seabiscuit I felt like I got to know the horse. I think they did a much better job of letting us get to know each character because they were all very important pieces to the puzzle.

I still think that Secretariat was not shown to the public the way we knew him back then and I think that is a real shame.

[bizbachfan]

“I still think that Secretariat was not shown to the public the way we knew him back then and I think that is a real shame.”

I agree as you have pointed out doubtful they will do another major motion picture on him.

I think they could have used some more of the real elements of the story and still achieved success with non horsey people.

[EponaRoan]

But you know, if Seabiscuit had come out at a time when a lot of his fans who had seen him race were still living, I bet there would have been similar feelings.

It’s a Disney movie. I don’t look for much in-depth hard hitting documentary style movie making from them since that’s not their target audience.