Friday Night Date Night

Friday Night Date Night is a feature on my blog that showcases movie review (mostly movies that were adapted from books).  Hopefully some of these reviews will help you decide what to watch on your date night or a night of chillin with the girls.

 

Have any of you ever seen the show Wildfire?  It ran for four season a couple of years ago on ABC Family.  I didn't actually watch it when it was on, but I did recently watch in on Netflix.  It was a show about a delinquent girl who ends up working on a horse ranch.  It's filled with drama and of course horse racing...which turns out I'm actually kind of in love with.  I don't think I'd actually like to see a horse race, but to see how people care for these animals as family and the hopes and dreams that surround them.  I'm not for any kind of abuse of animals and I'm sure there is some of that in horse racing so I decided my love is more for fictionalized horse racing.

Now that I discovered this new obsession interest of mine I wanted to find a movie featuring horse racing.  I decided to start with Secretariat because not only was the movie based on the book Secretariat: The Making of a Champion, but it is a real life story.  How flippin awesome is that!  Secretariat (Big Red) is one of 11 horses that have won the triple crown (winning at The Kentucky Derby, Preakness and the Belmont Stakes all in the same year).

 

First off, this movie was very inspirational.  It is one of those movies where you are on the edge of your seat cheering on the horse as if you were actually there.  It was uplifting and after watching it left you happy and at peace.

 

I thought Diane Lane and John Malkovich did a wonderful job.  They came across as passionate and determined.  They stepped into these characters flawlessly and soon you were just as inspired by their characters as you were by the horse.  Penny, Lucian, and many others risked it all on a horse, but Secretariat (Big Red) was so much more than a horse to them.  The character that really spoke to me was Eddy, a ranch hand.  He was so happy and believed in this horse like no other person.  Nelsan Ellis was amazing in this film and I think is really overlooked as an actor. 

 

This is one Disney movie you'll want to add to your personal vault! 

 

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