Secretariat (2010)

hyped garbage

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Housewife Penny Chenery (Diane Lane) has to take over her family's Meadow Stables from her sick father after her mother's death. She's the quintessential underdog in the world of horse breeding. With the help of trainer Lucien Laurin (John Malkovich), she produces the most important horse in recent history ultimately the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years.There are some questions about the truth in this movie. Although I have sympathies for the complaint, modern audiences have to set aside their naivety. Unless the movie is labeled a documentary, there isn't any good complaining about authenticity.This is a very good traditional underdog movie. Of course, everything is against them. I'm sure Disney has smooth out all the rough edges. I'm sure they just plain thrown out the rough edges. Diane Lane is great as the smart gutsy heroine. All the basics of David versus Goliath are properly included. There is nothing unsuspected to derail this.

There are quite a few "feel good" movies out there; most of them suitable for all. Movies such as "Sea Bisquit", "Apollo 13", and others are really wonderful. But this one...."Secretariat" takes the cake - IMHO.I have two granddaughters (4 and 1 1/2). The four year old has watched this movie (according to her mom) "'bout a hunert times"!!!!Still...in the Belmont Stakes sequence, the 4 year old cheers on "Big Red" the entire way!!Yes, there are "lessons" to be learned. Not quiting when all is running against you; hiring the "tried and true" when others around you are saying you're wrong. Keeping family as close as possible, but sticking to your guns....and more.But the horse racing can't be beat!Don't miss this one!

... all of the tax-incentive "LLC Chicanery and Tax Subsidy Shenanigans" that went on behind the scenes in the production of this film! Both Louisiana and Kentucky dropped their trousers & bent over in tax breaks to get the LLC Shell corporation known as "Fast Track Productions" (incorporated in Louisiana by a bunch of Disney execs) to ship in a bunch of film student, college-age kids to assist the handful of journeymen production professionals in the making of this mediocre-at-best effort.If you want to see the financial "pedigree" of this film, all you have to do is visit the Kentucky Secretary of State's website, and start searching, under "Business Records," for:Fast Track Productions, Inc. (#0740398), and Hat Trick Catering (#0735719)Pay special attention to all of the geographical hop-scotching associated with the background of these two "Kentucky/Louisiana companies."The new way of making a film is to descend on a state offering huge tax breaks to have it produced there --i.e., states with struggling economies. But part of the giveback is for the "production company" to agree to use as many "local, state-based businesses" in return. In the case of both of these Kentucky-based "businesses," they remained "in business" just long enough to produce Secretariat -- and then they left.This is how film making is done now ... replete with cheesy tax-subsidy deals, sleazy shell LLC incorporation, and outsourced student labor -- which may explain the inherent lack of production-value quality that we see in so many productions today -- including Secretariat.Always remember: This is not the Disney of Walt or Roy ... this is post-Eisner Disney at work here.Secretariat was a barely-OK film that has a production background screaming for a Michael Moore documentary treatment. Now, that would be a film worth going to see!

Wonderful Disney movie: But for me, it did not capture the true horse racing scene; it's a gritty, down-to-earth arena that was sweetened, simplified, and cleaned for the family. There could have been fewer family scenes and more about the horse, the races, and the backstretch, where all the action goes on. John Malkovich, who portrayed the French Canadian trainer, Lucien Laurin helped the film immensely, but really Laurin was not the fancy dresser he was made out to be. Changes were, of course, made to the true story in other ways; Penny was not drowning in debt, for instance. However, the racing scenes did bring chills to one who already knows that Secretariat's greatness will live forever.