Instant Favorite.

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Absolutely Fantastic

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Secretariat is directed by Randall Wallace and written by Mike Rich and Sheldon Turner. It stars Diane Lane, John Malkovich, Margo Martindale, Amanda Michalka, Dylan Walsh, Scott Glenn, Kevin Connolly, Dylan Baker, James Cromwell and Drew Roy. Music is by Nick Glennie-Smith and cinematography by Dean Semler.With the success and quality of production that came with 2003's Seabiscuit, it was perhaps inevitable that someone would turn their hand to making a film about a horse that many agree is the greatest American horse of all time. With Disney funding the cash flow and an A list cast assembled, Secretariat the movie is every inch the professional production you would expect. However, thematically it's surprising that the horse is very much secondary to the story of his owner, Penny Chenery (Lane).Chenery's story as written on the film version page, is a worthy one to tell, for sure. After suffering family bereavements, she stood firm after winning the horse on a coin toss to guide the horse to the greatest of American horse racing triumphs. This in a male dominated sport dominated by chauvinists. Further more, Chenery had to hold her own family together whilst running the Chenery ranch. Inspirational woman for sure, and Lane is naturally steely in the role, but there just isn't great human interest drama crafted by director Wallace to warrant the film being primarily about the good lady.Naturally, when the horse racing takes centre stage it's gripping and exciting, the race segments very well filmed, but we already knew that Secretariat was an awesome horse, how he got to be that way isn't known to us. Malkovich plays trainer Lucien Laurin with moody flamboyance, but we see next to nothing of his training of the horse! It's one of the many oversights that stop the film competing with Seabiscuit. It may seem unfair to compare the two, but the makers of Seabiscuit got the blend right whilst cleaving close to the facts to tell their story. There's also the controversy factor, the fudging of the facts to suit the makers ends, where some characterisations have been pointedly argued to be incorrect and a deviation from truths to the point we don't have the real story of what made Secretariat so great. Whilst it spins a rags to riches story when in reality it wasn't, Riva Ridge anyone? Where's the Preakness clocking controversy? These facts would have boosted the film no end, but I guess this is the price we pay for having Disney funding the film supposedly about the magnificent beast in the title. Come the home straight the music does swirl and the cheers go loud, and undeniably the uplift factor takes a hand, but there's too much wrong all told to make this a great picture. I have to say it, go watch Seabiscuit instead. 6.5/10

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)

To begin with this movie was not a movie Disney should have been allowed to make It is a 2 hour lovefest and a truly bad film If the film would have had merit I think the racing scenes would have had real racing footage the announcers would have been real commentators Save the 2 hours and watch Phar Lap Maybe Black Beauty if you are so inclined A bad film about arguably the greatest American racehorse ever Now a film, not by Disney, about the greatest 20th century sire, Northern Dancer, would play much better Bad from beginning to end though Malkovich saved some scenes. Secretariat would have hacked up this vile film. What can I say to save the film....nothing

This is the kind of film where expectation triumphs over knowledge. No serious theatre buff goes to see Othello or Julius Caesar and is devastated when Desdemona gets it where the chicken got the axe or Caesar's buddies plunge their daggers where they'll do the most good. We KNOW how it ends but we HOPE that a new production will still entertain us. So it is here, even non-sports fans have probably heard the name Secretariat and are vaguely aware he established some kind of record in horse-racing circles and that, coupled with the name Disney, is sufficient to get us to the box office. We are not - or should not be - disappointed. This is an uplifting tale involving a woman and a horse and it's all true - well, maybe ninety per cent true. It's full of Disney values, well acted by Diane Lane, John Malkovich and Margo Martingale and if it doesn't quite eclipse the other movies by the same thirty-one lengths by which Secretariat blew his rivals away in the Belmont Stakes - the third leg of the 'Triple Crown', we are still left with a feel-good movie for all the family.