Film Review: Diane Lane a Champion in Literal Horse Opera ‘Secretariat’

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CHICAGO – In real life, we cling to the notion that the inconceivable can happen, that magical probability can penetrate the mendacity of everyday existence, but it rarely if ever happens. That is what makes the new film “Secretariat” so appealing, that 37 years ago the impossible did happen, through the heart of a horse and his believers. Diane Lane and John Malkovich lead the charge.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

Secretariat is the horse that won the Triple Crown of racing (Kentucky Derby, Preakness, Belmont Stakes) back in 1973, and did it in a fashion that has yet to be equalled. Although it seems that everyone would know this story, the power of the achievement had been lost, until this film found it again. With the feel (complete with wooden dialogue) of a 1940s studio film, Secretariat brings together the characters, settings and drama that only a true story can muster.

Diane Lane is Penny Chenery, heir to a horse breeding and training stable run by her father (Scott Glenn). When her mother dies and her father is too ill to run the business, outsider Penny is determined to learn enough to keep the operation going. After a fallout with the trainer on site, she seeks out an outsider named Lucien Laurin (John Malkovich) to take over.

Two of the stable’s pregnant mares are about to give birth. Per an old agreement with one of her father’s partners, Ogden Phipps (James Cromwell), Penny must flip a coin to determine which of the potential newborns – with the blood lineage of a former champion named Bold Ruler – will go to which owner. Even though she loses the toss, she gets the horse she wants. Rearing up straight out of the womb, the horse that would be Secretariat is immediately dubbed Big Red.

With debts on the farm looming after her father’s death, Penny puts Big Red into the lucrative racing circuit, and the newly named Secretariat begins to rack up wins in the preliminary races leading to the Triple Crown, especially after the training team becomes anchored by jockey Ron Turcotte (Otto Thorwarth). After Penny secures more funding by selling risky breeding rights, including to her coin toss buddy Phipps, the Secretariat team focuses on the Kentucky Derby and beyond.

What happens in that Triple Crown pursuit is nothing short of amazing, in an age when the three races had not been won in 25 years. In the post-Vietnam and Watergate era of 1973, it was a horse named Secretariat that became the world’s greatest living athlete.

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “Secretariat”

Getting the Gold: Diane Lane as Penny Chenery and John Malkovich as Lucien Laurin in ‘Secretariat’ Photo Credit: John Bramley for © Disney Enterprises

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “Secretariat”