Considering its handicaps, Hidalgo is one rousing adventure tale.
The biggest problem with Hidalgo, opening locally today, is that it feels culled from at least five other movies. Like his fellow equine in Seabiscuit, Hidalgo is an underdog horse that triumphs over seemingly insurmountable odds.
Hidalgo is a mustang whose rider, Frank T. Hopkins (Viggo Mortensen), turned him into a champion long-distance racer.
Hidalgo was named the fastest horse on earth, a title that irked Sheikh Riyadh (Omar Sharif), a desert ruler who prides himself on breeding the fastest and hardiest Arabian steeds in the world.
The sheik sends a challenge to Hopkins to drop Hidalgo's title or enter the horse in the Ocean of Fire, a gruelling 5,000-km survival race across the Arabian Desert.
When Hopkins receives the challenge, he is working in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, hiding his shame over his failure to stop the massacre at Wounded Knee.
This entire scenario borrows a page or two from Tom Cruise's The Last Samurai in which a disgraced man finds a way to regain his dignity and purpose in life in an exotic land.
Once Hopkins arrives in the desert, the film has glimpses of Lawrence of Arabia with its attempts to show how much of an outsider Hopkins is in this strange land.
Sharif, famous of course for very famous movies like Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and Dr. Zhivago (1965), is superb as the wise and cunning old leader who has to deal with a rebellious daughter and relatives intent on stealing his finest steed. Sharif has such authority but he is also able to bring humour to the role.
Even when he was saving Middle Earth in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Mortensen showed himself to be an actor who has strict reins on his character. This works well for Hopkins because it's obvious the man is fighting personal demons and that he is in a race with himself as much as he is with dozens of other riders.
The desert becomes Hopkins's sweat lodge where he must suffer in hopes of redeeming himself.
Hopkins is a fine rider, and Hidalgo is a powerful horse but they meet with untold skulduggery from at least three different factions in the race.
This is where Hidalgo treads dangerous ground.
It seems as if everyone and every conceivable force of nature are out to prevent Hopkins and Hidalgo from winning the race.
One or two traitors and one or two natural disasters would seem enough, but there are villains around every sand dune, as well as sandstorms and plagues of locusts.
It all makes for stunning special effects and high-octane adventure but it strains credibility.
There's even an Indiana Jones-type diversion when Hopkins and Hidalgo have to rescue the sheik's daughter Jazira (Zuleikha Robinson) from the clutches of her evil cousin Prince Bin al Reeh (Said Taghmaoui).
The movie ends with a scene right out of Spirit - Stallion of the Cimarron.
But even considering its derivative nature, Hidalgo offers adventure, exotic locations, magnificent horses, a love story and heroics at every turn and that's what great matinee-style entertainment is all about.
(This film is rated PG)
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