Hidalgo

Reviewed by EWAN McDONALD

(Herald rating * *)

Seabiscuit meets The Last Samurai and Lawrence of Arabia in the tiniest bit true, mostly made-up story of Frank Hopkins (Viggo Mortensen), cowboy turned cavalry scout who sees the Sioux slaughtered at Wounded Knee, takes to the bottle and becomes a washed-up drunk in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.

Half-Indian, Hopkins is a top horseman with a top horse, a wild thing called Hidalgo. The pair are invited to be the first Westerners to compete in the Oceans of Fire, said to be an ancient 5000km desert race from Aden to Damascus. The catch: the winner gets $100,000 and most of the field will die.

Hopkins and Hidalgo will have to out-race and out-live the other horses, sandstorms, quicksand, bandits, a Biblical plague of locusts and the Bad Guy in the White Sheet with the Beautiful Daughter, mega-rich Sheikh Riyadh (Omar Sharif, the Lawrence connection).

If it seems a strange time for Hollywood to be making a grand epic about the arrogant, ruthless Arabian aristocrat with a weakness for American pop culture, and the simple, smiling Yankee, and how they will come to respect one another you probably shouldn't try to read too much into big, dumb, exciting, American cowboy stories.

The DVD has little to recommend it apart from the superb 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer, no commentary, and only two features: Sand And Celluloid, behind the scenes with director Joe Johnston (Jumanji, October Sky), and an Easter egg that tries to cement the Hopkins legend.

DVD, video rental