Viggo Mortensen has proven himself a versatile actor with roles ranging from a maniac in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3 to the warrior human Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. For Disney he took on the role of wild cowboy Frank Hopkins, a subject of much debate as to the accuracy of this legend.
Historical debate aside, Hopkins is a cowboy who's white skin and blue eyes hide his Native American background. Serving orders at the Wounded Knee massacre and then feeling guilty as hell, Frank leaves for the life of a drunken circus freak along with his horse Hidalgo working for Wild Buffalo Bill Cody, played wonderfully by J.K. Simmons.
Cody introduces Hopkins and his wild mustang as the fastest long distance racers in the world. This title upsets a Sheik who claims that neither Hidalgo nor Hopkins could survive in a thousand year old 3000 mile trek across the middle east. Sobering up and taking on the challenge, which could net him a hefty purse, the two set across the ocean to become the first "infidel" to race.
The movie is long and the pacing between scenes seems to drag on making this a good film that seems overedited. Hopkins faces many challenges upon entering the race, including the customs of the arab world which he almost gets himself killed upon. Whether historically any of this really happened exactly like this matters not, because the film ends on a high note. There's plenty of exciting moments of a great race, which are buried among lengthy sequences of unneeded dialog.
There's a reason Disney has been struggling lately and Hidalgo is just proof that audiences do not want to wait for the good parts. Lord of the Rings is a long movie that kicks ass because it is interesting the whole time. Hidalgo on the other hand could have been so much better but is lost among thrity minutes or so of nonsense.
The Disc:
Disney releases Hidalgo on DVD with a 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer that is really pristine. The sands of the desert with its special effects look truly stunning on this disc with little to no smearing.
Equally impressive is Disney's options of either a DD5.1 or DTS track giving the viewer a choice. We viewed with the DTS track and were very happy with the results. The movie offers plenty of surround to make home theater owners cheer with glee.
Specials on the disc begin with "Sand & Celluloid", an odd title feature that is basically interviews and behind the scenes material. Disney seems intent on focusing on how true this story is with this feature. Interesting debate material for fans wishing to know more about Hopkins can be found here.
Next up is a hidden piece that is labeled with an icon in the left bottom corner which basically shows Viggo riding horses and delves further into the stories that Native Americans were told about this "Far Rider".
Finally the longest extra is for DVD-ROM only but is labeled horribly. I thought my disc was messed up at first but the twenty-two minute "America's First Horse" is an enhanced computer feature that can only be accessed by a computer (duh!).
bottom line:
Hidalgo could have been much more but the length, wacky menus and poorly labeled menus make this more of a disappointment. There's some pleasant acting, beautiful horses and good special effects here but the sum of the parts doesn't add up to the whole.
2.5 out of 5
By - Brian Gray
1/2
