Secretariat

I had the chance to see Secretariat earlier this month, which opened today! So I wanted to take tell you all a little about this film, based on a true story about a horse named Secretariat and the woman who believed in him (and in herself). But first, the trailer:

I wasn't sure what to expect from this movie. Horse racing holds little interest for me, to be honest, and I'm not sure how I feel about it from an animal rights standpoint. But despite a few little hiccups (a few cheesy lines and some dialogue that implied The William Shaltner School of Acting), this was a good film.


Penny Chenery, a housewife with four kids who grew up on a horse farm, finds out her mother has died, and returns home. There she finds the farm in disrepair, her father increasingly confused. She decides to stay on, and begins to make decisions about the horses - although her brother thinks a housewife shouldn't be making business decisions, and her husband wants her to return home.  Most of all, Penny believes in a horse - Secretariat - believes in him so much, in fact, that she believes he can win the Triple Crown. She assembles a motley crew around her - assistant, trainer, jockey.

I loved that Secretariat passed the Bechdel test with flying colors - women talk to each other about business and about their lives. I loved the representation of a strong woman who trusts herself to make the right decisons, and stays cool under disagreement from the menfolk (in 1973). And it's just a great story. I went into it knowing very little about Secretariat's history and if he won the Triple Crown or not, so I won't fill in any more of the details.  For a feel-good, family-friendly sports flick with an unusual amount of feminism, though, I'd definitely recommend Secretariat - if you don't mind a little bit of unapologetic sentimentality.