the Dalaverse

Used my third straight sick day (Tuesday was bad, yesterday was half-bad, today was much better but I still couldn't brain when I tried to go into work. No, seriously, I kept mistyping things) to finally catch up with one of the movies that's been sitting on my hard drive for weeks:

"Secretariat". Obviously I'm biased in favor of horse movies, because if it has a horse in it, I will watch it, no questions asked. Jessie and I used to check out every horse movie Blockbusters stocked on a rotating basis. Our favorites were "Into the West," which I remember being about Irish orphans and which IMDB tells me stars Gabriel Byrne, and this movie called "The Silver Stallion: King of the Wild Brumbies," which - hey, that's totally Russell Crowe! Oh I am so going to hunt that one down again. Anyway, my point being, simply being about a horse is enough to earn my attention, but having such extensive knowledge of horse movies means I have a wider field in which to judge than your average moviegoer.

"Secretariat" is merely okay. It's a bog-standard inspirational sports story, and nothing directly horse-related really makes it stand out. Diane Lane is a capable actress, and the real Penny Chenery is a neat story, but the rest of the characters seem to be simply filling a script requirement (including Nelsan Ellis as Eddie Sweat, who I would've loved to see more of). There's not much focus on the horse himself. It's kind of long for family fare, too. I could see younger children getting bored with the negotiations and Penny's family troubles.

The thing is, we already have a great racing movie about a great horse. It's called "Seabiscuit" and I will fight anybody who says it didn't deserve a Best Picture nomination. It's got better acting, writing, cinematography, direction of the racing scenes, score - pretty much everything over "Secretariat." And true, there are elements of that story that make it more compelling regardless of execution - but Secretariat was the greatest race horse who ever lived (unless you want to argue Man o' War, and that's valid), and it's a shame he didn't get a better movie in his honor.

That being said? I sobbed like a baby during the Belmont. Holy shit, what a thing that must've been to see. Despite all the many, many problems I have with the racing industry, I still find myself wishing to see a Triple Crown winner every year. It's difficult - hell, it's been what, 32 years now - but not inconceivable. But no one's ever come close to beating the time and margin set by Secretariat and Ron Turcotte in 1973, and I'm not sure it'll ever happen.

Now I want to watch "Seabiscuit" again, but there's something wrong with my copy and I haven't replaced it yet. And sadly, Cowboy Karl is the closest thing I have to a horsey icon.