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Reel To Reel:
Hidalgo

How It Rates: ***
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Malcolm McDowell, Omar Sharif
Rated: PG-13
Red Flags: Swordplay, Gunplay, A Couple Of Sexual References

Preconceived Notions: Based on a true story, we're told. Filmmakers might cash in on some success of Seabiscuit
The Bottom Line: Entertaining, adventurous yarn about a man, his horse, and the race both of them must survive for honor and money

Many new films can be described as a hybrid of at least two other films. For example, last year's The Last Samurai could be described as Dances With Wolves crossed with Shogun (okay, that was a TV miniseries, but the theory still holds). The Butterfly Effect is Back To The Future minus the funny parts and added to The Thirteenth Floor. And of course, Kill Bill is snippets of other movies remixed.

So the equation for Hidalgo is The Mummy plus The Black Stallion Returns plus Seabiscuit. Here's a mixed-breed film about two mixed breeds: Viggo Mortensen (Lord Of The Rings) as half-Indian Pony Express rider Frank T. Hopkins racing in the ages-old "Ocean Of Fire" with his trusty mixed-breed mustang, Hidalgo. Both know how to go the distance and win cross-country contests.

But one big-shot shiek, who witnesses a washed-up Hopkins in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, is less than impressed with the less-than-purebred horse and rider. He throws down a challenge for Hopkins, and soon our heroes are off and running on a 3,000-mile trek across the African desert.

Hidalgo follows the formula of most race or sports films, where winning isn't the point, it's how you win. Hopkins is a likable character whose cowboy grit and craftiness are just too much for his Arab competitors. Count the number of times you hear Mortensen's character labeled "infidel." A real danger of racism lurks within this film, but it doesn't materialize. A couple of ladies are also in the mix -- one a rich Englishwoman who's backing a rider to get presumably richer, the other a shiek's daughter who is a free spirit trapped in a veil.

The title horse does enough acting for an equine Oscar nod. Perhaps he's jealous of Seabiscuit. His reaction shots are fun to watch. And so is Mortensen, who for all his cowboy skill is always on the verge of the last roundup.

If Hidalgo has a downside, it's that the two aforementioned ladies seem like excess baggage. The filmmakers must have thought a 3,000 mile race through the desert pitting an "infidel" against native Bedouin riders wouldn't provide dramatic material. Get the girls out of the movie, focus everything on Hopkins and his horse, and you've got a real winner.

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