By John C.

I finished my review of Secretariat by writing that “the film races past the finish line and emerges a bona fide winner.”  I found this to be endlessly true of the movie’s entertainment value, but I sincerely hoped this would also be the case with it’s financial success.

The Disney film opened in North America over the weekend to a good, but disappointing third place finish of $12.64 million.  It fell closely behind the mediocrity that is Life as We Know It, and a deserved first place finish for The Social Network.

The horseracing drama did particularly well in America’s heartland where it was heavily marketed through Christian publications.  I do believe this to be a good audience for the perfectly inoffensive film that opens with a quote from the Bible, but hopefully this heavy marketing didn’t alienate non-Christians.

I finally caught up with the film last Thursday night, so I had little time to think over my opinion.  Finding it to be a rousing and inspirational sports drama with beautiful cinematography and an excellent performance from Diane Lane, I gave it 4-stars and I can’t say that I regret that decision.  Although on Rotten Tomatoes, Secretariat is barely ‘fresh’ at a score of 65%, with reviews ranging from scathing to raving.

Internet controversy came last week to the tune of Andrew O’Hehir’s review for Salon.com.  He had a lot against the film, that much was clear, but his claims of it being “a work of creepy, half-hilarious master-race propaganda almost worthy of Leni Riefenstahl” were utterly confusing.  Among other things, O’Hehir also found fault with the film for it not bringing to light the end of the Vietnam war or the beginning of the Watergate hearings, both things that also happened the year the titular horse won the Triple Crown.  I expected to hear the “too Christian” debate, but never with this many layers piled upon.

After seeing the film I’m honestly not even sure what his claims are supposed to mean.  The movie did not mention the political events of 1973 simply because they were irrelevant to the story.  The only stories being told here are those of Penny and Secretariat, and other historical happenings in that year can be pieced into their story by the audience.  O’Hehir’s review sparked an interesting war of words with Roger Ebert (who also 4-starred Secretariat) who took the time to thoroughly pick apart the 1319-word piece.  Hopefully this unneeded controversy did not contribute to the film’s underperformance.

Disney is obviously looking to gather the same attention as last year’s The Blind Side – a film that had it’s own share of controversy and mixed reviews – and it will certainly appeal to the numerous fans of that film.  There are many things that could have contributed to Secretariat’s uncharacteristic lack of speed, but with the right word of mouth hopefully the film will gain momentum over the next couple of weeks and truly cross the financial finish line.