We humans sometimes forget we aren't the be all and end all of life on this planet. Our evolution has allowed us a brain of unrivalled capacity; the gift of conscious thought has led to the devising of culture and politics and has allowed us to form complex emotions like love, pity and hate. Scientists say the animals can't feel those like we do. Yet there lies an endurance of such magnitude in some animals that we cannot get close to.
Secretariat had that endurance. Secretariat was the best of his kind. An American Thoroughbred racehorse, Secretariat was born in 1970. The brown stallion lived for 19 proud years and died in 1989. During his lifespan, he won close to 15 major competitions and set a number of world records on many tracks. Oh, and he had a heart rumoured to be twice the normal size. Posthumously, Secretariat has been honoured with a postage stamp and an induction into the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame (the only non-human to hold a place). He has appeared in countless lists, including the 35th spot on ESPN's 100 greatest athletes of the 20th century. More awards than most human beings achieve, that's for sure. It's perhaps these accolades that drew director
Randall Wallace (The Man With The Iron Mask, We Were Soldiers) to the remarkable stallion. The result was a warming and inspired film from Walt Disney Pictures, released in 2010, and now available to buy on
Blu-ray and
DVD.
Based on a book by
William Nack, the film's focus is not so much on Secretariat but on owner Penny Chenery (
Diane Lane). With her father's stable in decline, she decides to bring back the glory when he passes on - of course, she'll need a special kind of horse to do it. So with former trainer Lucien Laurin (
John Malkovich), who comes out of retirement for the job, and "Big Red" Secretariat at her side, Penny sets out to win the triple crown. Like Pride and Prejudice heroine Elizabeth Bennet before her, Penny Chenery is the kind of assertive woman unconcerned by the constraints of her time. The men in her life are stunned that she wants to hit the track. Doesn't she want to sell up and live a cosy life as a housewife? Diane Lane plays Penny with the right amount of pep - she isn't particularly rebellious, and wouldn't, perhaps, be spotted in the front row of a women's rights march (though she'd go along). Penny simply knows what she wants and acts accordingly. Lane is an actress of relentless talent. Here, she makes good of a sometimes daft script, but isn't as memorable as usual. Perhaps she took it as far as she felt it could go whilst keeping the character grounded. Malkovich, on the other hand, finds himself immersed in an eyebrow-raising performance that doesn't quite gel. As Penny's ally and horse trainer, he's a caricature and an oddity, a textbook in flamboyancy. And is that a French accent? Being Malkovich, however, he makes it somehow watchable, even if the film ultimately suffers for it.
Randall Wallace, a great screenwriter and a fair director, keeps everything clean and tight. It works. The cinematography, too, courtesy of veteran
Dean Semler, must be mentioned - the words "beautifully shot" just about do it justice. This pairing allows good, old-fashioned storytelling to come to life, even if the plot is built of an archetypal "follow your dreams and you can achieve the impossible" mentality. For most, that will translate as predictable, but it's predictable in a way you can enjoy if you're willing to be open-minded. As anyone might have expected, there's a big push to tell the story from an underdog perspective. In truth, Secretariat wasn't an underdog at all, he won almost every race he went in for - still, that's Hollywood for you. The result is a traditional film where familiarities serve to guide the narrative to both positive and negative effect. That's to say, it doesn't escape sports movie clichés and a Disney movie construct. It doesn't matter much - this is the kind of experience that families can enjoy relentlessly, even if it does verge into TV movie territory. Above all, it's an almost guaranteed feel-good affair that has been directed with affection for the source material. But the real achievement lies with Secretariat as an athlete. He pushed the boundaries. He soared when others could not. A film in honour of his memory, even one as habitual as Disney's production, is welcomed. Just like Secretariat, it has a huge amount of heart. Secretariat is available on
Blu-ray now.