Went and saw "Hidalgo" today...
Mar. 10th, 2004 07:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
agilebritAnd....Meh.
It could have been a really great action-adventure movie, if they'd just left it at that. But no. They had to push their political agenda as well.
First of all, the evil bitch was referred to as "the Christian woman." She engaged in decidedly un-Christian behavior, such as trying to bribe Frank to lose the race, trying to seduce him, and hiring someone to fix the race so her horse would win. So, ugh. Call her anything but that. Thank you.
Then there was the whole "we treated the Indians bad" vibe. Well, yes we did. And I'm sorry. As Spike said in "Pangs": "I came, I conquered, I felt really bad about it." But trying to give me a guilt trip for something that I wasn't responsible for and can't change, is, quite frankly, silly--and I'm tired of it. Besides, what they did to each other wasn't all that pretty either. Not that two wrongs make a right, but at least they aren't running around massacring each other any more, and I have to think that's a good thing.
And of course, he was just about to give up on the race, and then he started praying to his ancestors, stripped the saddle off Hidalgo, and rode him bareback to win--even though the horse seemed half dead, was bleeding from the nostrils, and he was getting ready to shoot him five minutes beforehand. So, he threw off his evil "white" ways and embraced his "good" Sioux side, and that enabled him to win. Whatever.
There was also the matter of the symbolism of the flag he was riding under. Sorry. Call me a jingoistic, nationalistic super-patriot, but I vehemently disagree with the notion that "one flag is just as good as another."
So. This one's not going in the DVD collection. Pity. I wanted to like it.
"Starsky and Hutch," on the other hand, was pure entertainment. We're still debating whether it's going in the DVD collection (because, let's face it, it's morally questionable on SO many grounds), but it was a lot of fun to watch.
It could have been a really great action-adventure movie, if they'd just left it at that. But no. They had to push their political agenda as well.
First of all, the evil bitch was referred to as "the Christian woman." She engaged in decidedly un-Christian behavior, such as trying to bribe Frank to lose the race, trying to seduce him, and hiring someone to fix the race so her horse would win. So, ugh. Call her anything but that. Thank you.
Then there was the whole "we treated the Indians bad" vibe. Well, yes we did. And I'm sorry. As Spike said in "Pangs": "I came, I conquered, I felt really bad about it." But trying to give me a guilt trip for something that I wasn't responsible for and can't change, is, quite frankly, silly--and I'm tired of it. Besides, what they did to each other wasn't all that pretty either. Not that two wrongs make a right, but at least they aren't running around massacring each other any more, and I have to think that's a good thing.
And of course, he was just about to give up on the race, and then he started praying to his ancestors, stripped the saddle off Hidalgo, and rode him bareback to win--even though the horse seemed half dead, was bleeding from the nostrils, and he was getting ready to shoot him five minutes beforehand. So, he threw off his evil "white" ways and embraced his "good" Sioux side, and that enabled him to win. Whatever.
There was also the matter of the symbolism of the flag he was riding under. Sorry. Call me a jingoistic, nationalistic super-patriot, but I vehemently disagree with the notion that "one flag is just as good as another."
So. This one's not going in the DVD collection. Pity. I wanted to like it.
"Starsky and Hutch," on the other hand, was pure entertainment. We're still debating whether it's going in the DVD collection (because, let's face it, it's morally questionable on SO many grounds), but it was a lot of fun to watch.
