Secretariat

I have never really had a favorite racing horse, until I saw this...

Secretariat...

Also known as Big Red. Secretariat was kind of like his stage name - just because the horse racing association insisted on him having something a little fancier than 'Big Red' in order for him to be raced.


It's a typical story about a down-on-their-luck family who make a risky deal and end up getting a dream horse who becomes famous. What's great about the story is that it's true and the horse is not your typical horse. And the horse had a heart twice the size of a normal horse, so that kinda helped this horse win the Belmont Stakes with an amazing lead. An out of this world lead. But I won't tell you anymore possible plot spoilers. But I will tell you this, even after watching the movie multiple times, my jaw still fell wide open and me chanting "Go! Go! Go!" like a maniac during the final race.

I was slightly skeptical before I saw this because I'd heard that the main female character was feminist. I simply cannot stand feminists. They just drive me nuts. Take a look at Hillary Clinton for example. Or Nancy Pelosi. Then you'll see why (if you haven't already). But anyway... let me put all doubts to rest about this movie. The main character, Penny Chenery is not a feminist. Why people may think of it that way is because the men (i.e. her brother and husband) in Penny's family are not standing up and trying to save the family horse farm that her recently deceased father gave them. Instead they have the attitude of 'Hurry and sell the farm so we can get back to our lives. We don't care one bit about this place.' So Penny steps up. And makes history while doing it.

Ronnie Turcotte was Big Red's jockey. A good one. I don't know why I liked this character so much. I think it's because of his determination to do a job right and not beat around the bush. And if he fails a race, he feels so bad about it. I can relate to that. I want to do a job right the first time, not poke around, and most of all I hate to fail. I feel as though whoever's relying one me is very let down. Which might be the case.

Lucien Laurin... now he's one interesting character. And the trainer of Big Red. And is supposedly retired from horse training. And he's French Canadian, so sometimes he speaks French in the movie and I don't have any idea what he's talking about. He's one kooky, funny, smart, energetic, lovable, Canadian horse trainer. Although, I must say (since this did take place in the early 70's) he sometimes wears the most unique, er, outfits. If you could call them that. Sometimes some of his outfits look like he just grabbed whatever was clean in the closet just then, although they do get better farther into the movie. Which are what the above and below pictures are from. His hats are cool too.

Oh, yes and one more thing about Penny. She wears some of the classiest clothes. Don't you just love the dress in the above picture?

Now here's some pictures of the real people and the real horse...

L to R: Penny, possibly Lucien?, Eddie Sweat (Red's caretaker), Big Red, and Ronnie.

Doesn't that just make you suck your breath in? Not to mention making you think 'How can that be possible?'. It does for me. Although I'm sure that some of you won't do that. That's okay, I won't hold it against you. :)

This is a picture of the real Penny and Big Red.

After Big Red got done with his racing career, he retired to become a stud, and ended up siring over 600 foals. That's a whole lot of horses. The sad thing is Red ended up living until only 19 years old, and that is young for a horse to die at. Normally they end up living past a few more years than that. But since race horses get pushed so hard and fast so constantly, the wear and tear of life breaks them down sooner.

But anyway, you've heard my thoughts (and somewhat insane ramblings) on this movie, so if you've seen it... what are your thoughts? If you haven't seen it... Did I do a good review? Do you want to watch this movie now?