Hidalgo...
Apr. 21st, 2004 11:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
athersgeo...or how I spent £10, nearly flattened my poor car battery (like it wasn't long suffering enough, I go and leave my lights on in the cinema's parking lot *sigh* [for anyone worried, it started OK so hopefully, no ill will occur *THUMPS WOODEN DESK VERY HARD*]) and didn't really enjoy the film so much...
WARNING!!! Do not read on if you have any intention of going to see Hidalgo and not being spoiled; my comments are fairly spoiler heavy.
OK. I went to see this to try and verify whether or not Daniel Southworth is in it as a stunt guy. Otherwise, this film would come into the category of something I would probably never see. (Did I succeed in my aim? Um, no. No onscreen credit that I could see, though I have a feeling I may need to rent the DVD and do the stop motion thing to fully confirm that - there were a number of stunt players in three columns across the screen, which makes life difficult without a pause/slowmo button. BUUUUUUUUT half way through the film, someone got hit over the head who was the right shape, size, height and (more importantly, since Arab dress makes identifying people very difficult) yelped in the right sort of tone to have been Dan.)
So, from that point of view, I *NEEDED* this film to be good and entertaining - because I was there just for one reason. And it didn't really pull that trick off.
Won't say it bored me to tears (if it had done, I'd have walked out, Dan Southworth or no - I'm not getting paid to do this!), but...
1) The film is supposed to be based on the life of a real historical figure. Unfortunately, I knew before hand that at least 75% of the story was ficticious, even down to the central storyline (namely the race across the Arabian Desert to Syria by way of Iraq - which is something the film makers completely invented...).
2) It has all the tension of a limp piece of lettuce. (White man enters race that has been Muslim only for 'centuries'. Guess who's going to win...)
3) Some of the archytypes were very overplayed which just added to the sense that here was celuloid cliche in glorious technicolour.
It did have a few things going for it, though (and this was basically what kept me going):
1) Omar Shariff and Viggo Mortensen were both excellent (apart from the embarrassing hallucination scene towards the end of the film - ugh).
2) The horse playing Hidalgo - the true star of the film. I've read that Viggo bought the horse after filming finished; I can see why. The creature's got SUCH a personality to him!
3) The fact that THEY DIDN'T TOTALLY GO WITH THE CLICHE! He rode off into the sunset, leaving the girl behind, without so much as a kiss. That has GOT to be a first!
All in all, though, I'm wishing I'd waited until it was out on DVD so I could rent it. Cheaper, *warmer* (they had the a/c whacked right up, I was shivering all film) and I wouldn't have continually been jogged by the idiots in the row behind as they switched positions.
So that was that.
I'm now debating whether to do a piece about it for Strictly Southworth... Having sat through it, I probably ought to...but I don't like relying on IMDB for data, even if I DO have a suspicion I know who's supplied IMDB.
Ah well. I shall sleep on it and deal with it tomorrow.
WARNING!!! Do not read on if you have any intention of going to see Hidalgo and not being spoiled; my comments are fairly spoiler heavy.
OK. I went to see this to try and verify whether or not Daniel Southworth is in it as a stunt guy. Otherwise, this film would come into the category of something I would probably never see. (Did I succeed in my aim? Um, no. No onscreen credit that I could see, though I have a feeling I may need to rent the DVD and do the stop motion thing to fully confirm that - there were a number of stunt players in three columns across the screen, which makes life difficult without a pause/slowmo button. BUUUUUUUUT half way through the film, someone got hit over the head who was the right shape, size, height and (more importantly, since Arab dress makes identifying people very difficult) yelped in the right sort of tone to have been Dan.)
So, from that point of view, I *NEEDED* this film to be good and entertaining - because I was there just for one reason. And it didn't really pull that trick off.
Won't say it bored me to tears (if it had done, I'd have walked out, Dan Southworth or no - I'm not getting paid to do this!), but...
1) The film is supposed to be based on the life of a real historical figure. Unfortunately, I knew before hand that at least 75% of the story was ficticious, even down to the central storyline (namely the race across the Arabian Desert to Syria by way of Iraq - which is something the film makers completely invented...).
2) It has all the tension of a limp piece of lettuce. (White man enters race that has been Muslim only for 'centuries'. Guess who's going to win...)
3) Some of the archytypes were very overplayed which just added to the sense that here was celuloid cliche in glorious technicolour.
It did have a few things going for it, though (and this was basically what kept me going):
1) Omar Shariff and Viggo Mortensen were both excellent (apart from the embarrassing hallucination scene towards the end of the film - ugh).
2) The horse playing Hidalgo - the true star of the film. I've read that Viggo bought the horse after filming finished; I can see why. The creature's got SUCH a personality to him!
3) The fact that THEY DIDN'T TOTALLY GO WITH THE CLICHE! He rode off into the sunset, leaving the girl behind, without so much as a kiss. That has GOT to be a first!
All in all, though, I'm wishing I'd waited until it was out on DVD so I could rent it. Cheaper, *warmer* (they had the a/c whacked right up, I was shivering all film) and I wouldn't have continually been jogged by the idiots in the row behind as they switched positions.
So that was that.
I'm now debating whether to do a piece about it for Strictly Southworth... Having sat through it, I probably ought to...but I don't like relying on IMDB for data, even if I DO have a suspicion I know who's supplied IMDB.
Ah well. I shall sleep on it and deal with it tomorrow.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-21 08:51 pm (UTC)Sweet >D
(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-22 12:08 am (UTC)*The editing/camera angles made some of the fighting a bit difficult to work out who was doing what to who, when and how - but it wasn't as badly cut together as some of the PotC sword fighting (Johnny Depp starts a down cut with the sword, the editor makes a cut and the next shot is of Orlando Bloom making an up cut with NO PARRY in between. GAH!) and it was vastly more believable than *ANY* of the action in the aforementioned Black Mask II...
(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-22 01:40 am (UTC)By the way, when's the next update for Five by Five? =)
~Kim
(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-22 02:59 am (UTC)Next Five by Five update, I'm HOPING to do for tomorrow - but I can't promise that (my work sitch is driving me nuts - and, of course, spending two hours some odd watching a film on the off chance of spotting a stuntman last night doesn't help!).
And feel free to lurk ;)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-22 03:50 am (UTC)It brings to mind the fact that someone (a friend of a friend) submitted themselves as the new Yellow Lightspeed Ranger. Before the show started airing, or the cast was announced, I might add, so it was even easier for people to be sucked into it.
And then, I believe it was Dino Thunder that had Kate Mulgrew -- AS Captain Janeway -- listed in the credits fairly early on.
Rule of thumb: generally speaking, any information post-production is fairly reliable. Not perfectly, but not too terribly bad. However, anything preproduction is worth verifying through any other means possible.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-22 04:03 am (UTC)And you're absolutely right - that's the exact thing I'm talking about. (The Wild Force rangers, at one stage, were going to have upwards of 18 different rangers, including the entire Time Force cast! Equally, there has been a very persistant rumour [started by someone posting speculative info on IMDB] that 1) There's going to be a third Mortal Kombat movie and 2) Dan Southworth is going to be in it. The guy who did that finally admitted that he'd posted speculatively but STILL the rumour persists!) But I have also seen it that people get credited to shows they weren't in, post production - and seen it on plenty of occasions, mostly with minor roles - so, unless the info is about the stars/director/writer, it's always wise to take it with a pinch of salt.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-22 06:12 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-22 06:55 am (UTC)