Hidalgo is a great movie!!!!

Has anyone had a chance to watch Hidalgo yet? I'm sure it was over-dramatized and only half resembles the life of the real person, but it was such a great movie.

Here's a synopsis from Yahoo.

Held yearly for centuries, the Ocean of Fire - a 3,000 mile survival race across the Arabian Desert - was a challenge restricted to the finest Arabian horses ever bred, the purest and noblest lines, owned by the greatest royal families. In 1890, a wealthy Sheik invited an American and his horse to enter the race for the first time. Frank T. Hopkins (Viggo Mortensen) was a cowboy and dispatch rider for the US cavalry who had once been billed as the greatest rider the West had ever known. The Sheik (Omar Sharif) would put this claim to the test, pitting the American cowboy and his mustang, Hidalgo, against the world's greatest Arabian horses and Bedouin riders - some of whom were determined to prevent the foreigner from finishing the race.

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Vigo is great in this movie. I heard a rumor that he loved the horse so much that he bought it and has it stabled near his home.

This will be a definite DVD purchase.

I'm glad to hear that, Pal.........I'm anxious to see it and the local paper here didn't give it a good review........thanks for yours...42

There's probably some CGI involved, but there are some great shots of wild mustangs running across an open plain at the end of the film. The sight of so many horses running free made me misty-eyed. Horses are such beautiful animals.

Just as a follow-up. I think that the real Frank Hopkin's success in this grueling race really gave the mustang horse value as a breed. It was a very prestigious honor for an outsider to be invited to this race and I'm sure most of the pure-bred horse owners thought that it would be one of "their kind" that would be invited first.

There are several references in this movie where people insult Frank then the horse. He doesn't care about the insults to himself, but gets really pissed off when they insult the horse. Violence ususally occurs at that point.

Vigo was great as a cowboy out of place in a high class world. Yet he still maintained the character's integrity.

It's no rumor--he actually got the horse. Pretty cool, huh?

I was going to see it, but did not get there. I will likely have to wait until it comes out on DVD or video.