An unlikely tale

Traumatised by the Sioux massacre at Wounded Knee, the half-Indian horseman Frank T Hopkins (Viggo Mortensen) takes his mustang pony, Hidalgo, to join the circus.

Together they perform virtuoso feats, but all the while Hopkins is drinking himself to death. Eventually, on the invitation of Sheikh Riyadh (Omar Sharif), he enters a 3,000-mile horse race across the Arabian desert.

He and Hidalgo soon have to face more than just the dust and lack of gin: the other contestants are cheating swine. It's a rather barmy western, in the East.

Disney is promoting Hidalgo as a true story, but American journalists have angrily questioned the verity of the whole shebang, particularly the race itself.

Why, though, expect any kind of accuracy from Hollywood? History, after all, is just one great prop room in that town. (Where were all the Australians in The Bridge on the River Kwai? And are you telling me that Cleopatra really had a 30FF bust?)

One thing is true: the tale seems about as likely as Viggo Mortensen ever being an alchoholic. This man is the picture of health - even his name sounds like some Swedish probiotic supplement.

Still, Sharif grounds the silliness a little. When he looks across the desert with those eyes that have always hinted that hard weather is coming, everybody else rushing around the set looks overdressed for a costume party.

Hidalgo
Cert: cert12A