Hidalgo

[aleathiel]

So I saw Hidalgo with cfeng

I realise I'm probably the last one to see it, but spoilers under the cut:




Before I start I want to remind you all that I love Viggo. I really do.

That said: Oh dear.

Perhaps my reaction to this film would be best summarised thus: Ouch ouch Viggo! ouch ouch Viggo! Horsey! Viggo! ouch ouch.

Okay, maybe that's a touch unfair. There were moments I liked. I thought that the use of light was very good although there were too many 'oh pretty sunset' shots. One would have been enough. The harsh light when Frank thought he was going to have to shoot Hidalgo was beautiful.

The end of the race was good. Aside from the fact that I adored the bareback riding, I did think that, even though I knew he'd win, the atmosphere and the playing on audience emotions for the closing few moments of the race was well done.

I'm glad he didn't get the girl because the ending was cheesy enough as it was. Okay, so the riding into the surf was actually quite pretty and I did smile at the guy with his hand made flag.

The very end, with the freeing of the wild horses? Well I spose seeing all the grassland was a nice artistic contrast with the sand dunes. And the freeing of Hidalgo? Maybe I can forgive the writer if only because it allowed us that one gorgeous shot of Frank in his hat with his eyes full of tears.

Yeah, I was amused by Hidalgo's jealousy whenever Frank was talking to a woman.

The scriptwriter should be shot: or at least exiled to outer Sibera with no computer, no typewriter, hell not even a pencil and paper. I firmly believe the two reasons they had so much use of other languages was because Viggo looks so gorgeous talking a language we don't understand (and how many of you thought "then I will die as one of them!" every time someone spoke to him in another language?) and also because the lines were so appallingly trite and cliche that no audience could have listened to them in English. Maybe they thought they'd get away with subtitles.

Which brings me to my second major complaint: the story itself. So you have this beautifully sympathetic portrayal of the Sioux - and I do think the massacre of Wounded Knee was done well - and then you have Frank's not very pleasant treatment of the slave boy and the goatherder?
ETA: CFeng thinks that is an unfair assessment. That Frank was nice to them. Maybe. I still don't think the arabs came very well out of the portrayal, but I will agree that it wasn't down to Frank's treatment so much as the filmmaker's. Considering Frank's comments about being equal and stuff.
Also I didn't think there was any need to have 'villains' in the story. Viggo tells it as a story about a man and his horse: so surely it should have been a story about survival? I realise that it wouldn't probably have sold so well without the whole sabotaging him plotline, but it felt a bit cheap to me.

Similarly, after Hidalgo was wounded there is no way he could have raced that speed at the end. If I'd written it I'd have had the point be that they finished the race at all, I'd have had Frank and Hidalgo arrive hours, if not days after the winner had raced to the end (although I did already admit I liked the close of the race). And I'd have had Frank walk Hidalgo across the finish line.

I thought the appealing to the ancestors was going to be worse than that. I knew he was going to sing 'Miyelo' and I was preparing to cringe. And okay I did, but at least they made it so that you could believe he was hallucinating because he was so close to death.

The gratuitous tying up Viggo? Yeah well I can see why they felt compelled to do that because I for one would have jumped him instantly. Which I suppose makes the fact that all the women threw themselves at him more realistic, but I didn't think it aided the plot much.

Oh, and the women? The whole relationship with Jazira was another reason the scriptwriter should be shot. Anyone writing those lines in fanfic would have been torn apart. And the Lady Whatever-her-face? I'd have had the scene where we discover she's in league with the raiders before the scene where you almost believe Frank will sleep with her. Simple complexity of plot surely, this way it was like "oh look he made the right decision because she's actually evil." Well done, Frank.(but then again I wouldn't have had the raiders at all so...)

Off the top of my head that's everything although I know there was far more while I was watching it. To be completely honest I'd rather have watched a simple two hours of Viggo and TJ. Who needs the rest of it?

I've heard Viggo talk about the film and I believe he was making a different film to the director and the producer. And he sure as hell wasn't on the same planet as the writer.
In an interview a while back Viggo said
"It comes down to the fact that you supply the blue, and they supply the other colors and mix them with your blue, and maybe there's some blue left in the painting and maybe there isn't. Maybe there wasn't supposed to be any there in the first place. So have some fun and make a good blue and walk away."

Well, Vig hon, there ain't much blue in 'Hidalgo'






I shall have nice Viggo-dreams tonight.

ETA2: As I've just been reminded: it's a Disney movie. I should get off my high horse and admit I enjoyed it, even though I didn't think it was a good film. And I did: after all how can you not enjoy a film where Viggo's on-screen so much?

Comments

[nitw1t.livejournal.com]

owch.. i'll give that one a miss then!

[aleathiel.livejournal.com]

If you're willing to watch it purely because Viggo is on screen 95% of the time then it's fine. My review to my sister about whether she should go was: Pretty Viggo. Pretty Horse. Pity about the film.

[cfeng.livejournal.com]

yeah. agree with almost all of that. particularly the parts that slate it. still laughing at how bad it was.

[aleathiel.livejournal.com]

Yup. Highly disappointing. I told my sister Pretty Viggo. Pretty horse. Pit about the film. That's how I feel about it. Ain't much blue.

[shrinetolust.livejournal.com]

Wow. Viggo was making a different film and apparently I was watching one, too! *G*

I dunno, I really liked it. To me it was an old-fashioned western and how realistic were those movies ever, anyway? I knew what I was going in for--I mean, sometimes I don't want to see a movie where everyone dies, the hero loses, and the heroine gets a horrible disease and it's soooo realistic. Sometimes I just want to see a hot man riding his trusty horse and winning a race. That's all I want.

And I thought, for a film that was basically just supposed to be a fun ride, they did pretty well portraying other cultures--very fairly by Hollywood standards, and particularly in the climate of what's going on in the world right now. He didn't rush in and try to "fix" them and snatch the girl away and ride off into the sunset with her. But considering the time this took place in, if you want to be realistic, he probably should have been way more of an asshole than he was--to me there was a lot of Viggo's equanimity in this.

And he looked really good in those high-waisted tight pants. :P

I do agree that they didn't need to have so many villians, and I didn't like the way Frank coldly dispatched of the last guy--a little too Dirty Harry for me, in the midst of a film that I thought was trying to do better.

Not a perfect film by any means, but I liked it and enjoyed it.

And Viggo looks really good in high-waisted tight pants. *G*

[aleathiel.livejournal.com]

I think you've made one extremely valid point: it was a Disney movie and I should have seen it coming! Reading back over my review it does appear that I didn't enjoy it - I did enjoy it, I just didn't think it was a very good film. I don't know whether I was influenced by the fact that I was watching it with the world's worse movie critic: probably. If I'd watched it with my sister I would have ignored the plot totally - well actually, I kinda did anyway.

He didn't rush in and try to "fix" them and snatch the girl away and ride off into the sunset with her.
True. He just went through the race as himself.

And Viggo looks really good in high-waisted tight pants
Oh yes. That man has the nicest legs...

[cfeng.livejournal.com]

the world's worse movie critic
i'm proud of that. i'm sure it can't be true (i have approved of some films) but hey

[aleathiel.livejournal.com]

It's a reflection of your attitude to life, I think. Nothing's every good enough :P Remember the pancakes which were perfectlt edible? Yeah. I rest my case.

[cfeng.livejournal.com]

Nothing's every good enough
ok that's a bit harsh. and i'm sure it's not true. can't think of any examples right now though. :P
but the pancakes? i just set high standards for myself i guess. because i know i can do better.

[shrinetolust.livejournal.com]

heee...it's amazing how one's view of a movie can be *completely* different, depending on who one goes with. I've had movies spoiled for me by the audience around me!!

And Viggo in those pants...ahhhh...I squeed myself into a coma just thinking of how strong his legs must have gotten from gripping the horse during all those rides, especially bareback...

*SQUEE!*

[aleathiel.livejournal.com]

Oh, the bareback riding... *dies*

[jasmineskie.livejournal.com]

Now... see, I went to the movie knowing I was going to be seeing a PG-13 Disney movie about a horse. My expectations were fairly low. I wouldn't have gone to see it at all if Viggo wasn't the star. With such low expectations I came away feeling much better about the depth of Hopkins' character in the movie, and much better about the movie in general than I expected to.

Sure, Lady Davenport is this movie's Cruella Deville, the evil nephew who kidnaps Jazira is the Snidley Whiplash of the Arabian desert, and it's a forgone conclusion that Hidalgo will win the race no matter how close to death Hidalgo or Hopkins are mere moments before. All staples in a Disney flick. After all, we had a happily ever after end to Pirates of the Caribbean, too, that flew in the face of logic, but that's what Disney films are - happily ever afters (after we kill off the main character's parents or parent-surrogate in the beginning or before the beginning of the film; don't get me started on this since it tends to be a rant of mine *g*). I didn't expect the layers in Viggo's portrayal of Hopkins, and I certainly didn't expect a Disney movie to portray the Wounded Knee massacre so starkly. Hopkins' self-imposed drunken purgatory in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, where he relives every day the politically correct mis-telling of a massacre he feels responsible for -- that was gut-wrenching, and another thing I didn't expect in a Disney flick.

I agree with you about the dialogue. A lot of it sucked, big time. I agree with CFeng about Frank's treatment of the goatherder and the boy. I thought Frank was extremely patient with the goatherder who kept telling Frank, at every opportunity, that he was going to either die or lose, and who Frank didn't want helping him in the first place. He was terse, but he wasn't mean, and I don't remember him ever being mean to the boy.

It would have been more realistic if Hidalgo and Frank hadn't won and merely crossed the finish line, finding the strength in themselves not to give up, but again that's not what a Disney movie is all about. I found it extremely touching that Frank let Hidalgo go with the rest of the herd at the end. Hidalgo had given everything he had and Frank knew it and didn't want to put the horse through it again. Pure love for his 'little brother'.

So yeah, I liked it. I've seen it three times and enjoyed the hell out of Viggo every time. It's not a classic but I'll forgive it its flaws.

[shrinetolust.livejournal.com]

I just want to peek in and say yes! yes! to everything you've said! I didn't have huge expectations, either, and I ended up being surprised at the depth of the character, like you said. And the fact that he recognized Jazira's way of life and refrained from doing anything that would get either of them in trouble. That really surprised and impressed me.

And you've made me all choked up about "little brother"...God, the way he said that was sooo endearing!

And I wanted to add that I am extremely irritated at the whole "killing of parent--usually mother" at the beginning of every Disney film. Just as much as I'm irritated by every action film starting with a guy's wife and kids getting killed so he can go out and kill everyone in revenge. Why doesn't the husband ever get killed so the wife can go out on a rampage? And why the hell doesn't a woman ever get to serve a purpose in a film other than being the dead wife?? Arghhh...okay, I'd better stop now before I go on a crazy rant!

[aleathiel.livejournal.com]

You know, in essence I agree with a lot of that. I guess I just didn't want it to be a Disney movie, if that makes sense? The bad dialogue really was painful and the sterotypical "villains" who sabotaged him were unnecessary. But yeah, I need to remember it was a Disney movie.

I certainly didn't expect a Disney movie to portray the Wounded Knee massacre so starkly. Hopkins' self-imposed drunken purgatory in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, where he relives every day the politically correct mis-telling of a massacre he feels responsible for -- that was gut-wrenching
I agree, I thought that wounded knee was probably the best part of the film. It was done very well, something I thought was true of the part where Frank nearly shot Hidalgo as well.

I did enjoy it. I was just amused that it was so cliche ridden. And I thought the dialogue was awful!

[jasmineskie.livejournal.com]

I guess I just didn't want it to be a Disney movie, if that makes sense?

That makes perfect sense. If this movie had been produced by another studio, the story itself had the potential to the be the movie I think we both hoped it might be with an actor of Viggo's caliber as the star.

I think as writers we're especially sensitive to bad dialogue and cliched situations/characters. This is what happens when a studio the size and demeanor of Disney produces a movie by committee -- not much of Viggo's 'blue' left in the final product. The Disney formula has worked for them for a long time. They probably don't see the need to change it.

[aleathiel.livejournal.com]

They probably don't see the need to change it.

Why would they? It's a success and it makes them money.

the story itself had the potential to the be the movie I think we both hoped it might be with an actor of Viggo's caliber as the star
That's hitting the nail on the head exactly. I'd be interested to know Viggo's honest opinion of the final film, although it's something we'll never discover.