Something to watch tonight: Thursday 22 February
Secretariat (Wallace, 2010)
Thursdays are always busy watching the week’s new releases so the updates tend to be short and sweet.
Today I want to draw your attention to one of my unsung favourites, a film about a racehorse:
Secretariat was a racehorse – a very successful racehorse. In 1973 it was the first horse for 25 years to win the Triple Crown (the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont) and is widely acknowledged to be the finest Thoroughbred that ever lived. I know next to nothing about racing – and could care even less – and yet I watched Randall Wallace’s biopic of the horse with tears in my eyes from start to finish. I haven’t been milked like that since The Pursuit of Happyness back in 2007 and frankly Secretariat had no right to do that to me. I mean, it’s all been seen before and it’s certainly not as if you don’t already know what’s going to happen. And yet… and yet… I adored it.
It’s the execution that sets Secretariat head and shoulders above other rags-to-riches, redemption and triumph-over-adversity stories. There’s not even that much adversity to overcome. Secretariat was born into a virtually bankrupt Virginia stable in 1969. The toss of a coin decided his fate and everyone thought owner Penny Chenery (Diane Lane) had drawn a dud. His lineage suggested he would have fast pace but no staying power – Chenery thought otherwise.
But to prove her instincts about the horse were correct she had to find a trainer (delightful John Malkovich) and a jockey (real life professional Otto Thorwarth) and overcome the resistance of her own family.
After Secretariat died in 1989 vets discovered that (like Phar Lap) his heart was twice as big as other horses and that’s what gave him his remarkable staying power. I could say the same about Secretariat the film, too – it’s got a heart twice as big as your average film.
I loved this so much I eventually bought myself a copy.
Other films reviewed in that February 2011 Capital Times review include a biopic about the French singer Serge Gainsbourg and a preview of that year’s French Film Festival. The highlighted titles (Tournée – “terrific”, Yves Saint-Laurent doco L’Amour Fou, Hands Up and The Names of Love) are all good films and all mostly forgotten.
Where to watch Secretariat
Worldwide (at least in territories that have Disney+): Streaming on Disney+
Further reading
One of my clients is the bookshop point-of-sale and website provider Circle and I write profiles of their customers for the Circle website.
Here’s a lovely bookshop in the Blue mountains of New South Wales that you should visit if you are ever out that way.
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