Secretariat is one of those movies they don't make 'em like anymore!

"It's not whether they think you've won, it's whether you think you have."

Stirring. Inspirational. Adrenaline triggering. The story of a legendary horse's owner and her quest to survive in prehistoric times (aka: the 70's). For those who weren't there, it must be hard to imagine that such a male-female power imbalance existed so recently. For those that lived it, the experience was very real. That Penny Chenery triumphed amidst such a social context rockets this story into the stratosphere of sports victory tales.

As to the horse? They say grown men fell to their knees crying at his funeral in 1989 - - but this movie Secretariat isn't really his story at all (though I can imagine a cgi animated version in the hands of a director like Spike Jonze truly capturing Big Red's exhilarating POV). Nope...

Secretariat is a story of drive.

That's right - - drive - - the lifeforce that glows in all of us and blazes inside the great souls.

Diane Lane reigns supreme in the lead role - - she is still smoking hot in her fifth (!) decade in the movies, and her assured maturity suits this role to a "T". The four "good guys" aiding her on Secretariat's team were all played by convincing actors, of course lead by acting overlord John Malkovich. Those playing the "bad guys", Miss Chenery's spineless brother and snaky husband, were solid too.

This is the kind of movie that you can take your grandma to, and you both come out having had a great time. It's one of them good old stalwart Hollywood big productions that spurs it's audience into a blissful glow by the finish line. It's an old school crowd pleaser done right. Secretariat is a winner.


25 out of 5.

What a surprising review from Bradley!

Who won the race?

Sabu obv.

Thanks for answering.

You win the dunce award.

Secretariat has a lot of heart but with noticeable plot holes and angles not needed the film becomes lacking of its potential. Diane Lane does a decent job in here role though the film seems to spend too much time on her personal matters then actually that of Secretariat. It spends too much time on money problems and personal problems due to death and those problems just seem useless once the film hits it's stride. If the film was more like the second half it could of actually been a pretty noticeable film. The film also finds problems in it's cheesy dialogue such as "He's not a race horse, he's Secretariat!" that just screams too much of formula and not of originality in screenwriting. Though the ending is known for anyone who has read about Secretariat, the last three races definitely offer some thrills. John Malkovich is also the film's highlight. Though if the film didn't have so many problems in the beginning this could of been a Disney great. It has to deal with just a decent result however. **

Well, don't understand your review. What could they have done in the 1st half? And there isn't much need to show of the horse as most horse races are 3 minutes. So most of the story was about the owner.

Occasionally on the cheesy side, mostly in regards to Malkovich's character. Some of his lines had me cringing. But overall this was surprisingly good. The race scenes were really thrilling and well-shot. Certainly better than Seabiscuit, at least I thought so.

7/10 ( B )