Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
Joe Johnston’s frustrating to me. He’s been a key creative player in some of my favorite films growing up, but as a director on his own, I still don’t think he’s really found a voice. It’s strange to see someone so obviously talented making such cookie-cutter movies. Oh, well... he’ll always be the guy who designed the IRON GIANT, so I guess he’s got that going for him...
For now, he’s a fairly negative take on the film from Cave Jr., who sounds like he really wanted to like what he saw but... didn’t...
Harry,
I've never posted on your site before but read it daily. This is the first time I've actually had a "scoop" so I thought I might as well post.
My friend and I attended a free screening of A 99% (we were told) finished version of Hidalgo, the new Viggo Mortensen horse/western flick. The previews made it seem a little Indiana J. mixed with some long-distance horse loving, er, racing. Unfortunately the movie tried to be this and much more.
I won't bore you with the details, but here are some things the movie tried to do:
1. Show the grueling aspects of long-distance horse racing
2. Commentary on the U.S. treatment of Indians during the civil war era (particularly the battle at Wounded Knee)
3. Show how a "half-breed" can find his place in the world
4.Show how a sikh culture and native american culture understand each other, i.e. "I too know what it's like" etc.
5. A movie with a long rescue scene straight out of the Indiana J. archive...that seems completely out of place
6. A commentary on slave culture
7. etc., etc., etc,...
As you can see, this is a movie that has lost it's direction ("have you tried Hari Krishna?" - Kermit the Frog - the muppet movie). In fact there were several scenes in which after some dialogue there was a quick cut to the horse, as if he was about to say something. Honestly, this happened like five or six times.
As I was filling out the questionnaire toward the end of the movie I kept asking myself why the movie seemed so familiar...I then realized that half of the scenes seemed to be from other movies. There was a Black Beauty horse-on-a-ship scene...an elegant ship dinner w/overtly rude/rich people ala Titanic...a recuse scene from, well you know where...a camp setting that reminded me of Planet of the Apes (Burton version), etc. This movie just plain over-extended itself.
The one redeeming thing about this movie was Viggo. He was completely likable and seemed to nail a lot of scenes that would have been laughable with other actors (particularly an Indian Bone song scene...yes, he was singing..again.) Yet at the end, I found myself disappointed that he might follow-up a great trilogy, in which he proved he could carry a movie, with this.
This movie might be different by the time it's released...let's hope. The way to make this movie better is to make it more Chariots of Fire and less King Solomon's Mines.
Well, I hope this is useful. If you use this, call me Cave Jr.
Thanks, man.
"Moriarty" out.
