This is an oldie but a goodie, and our family enjoys it every time we pile up on the couch for family movie night when there just doesn’t seem to be anything “new” worth watching! If you have not seen “Secretariat” you are in for a treat! and if you have watched it when it was first released…it’s worth watching again!
Check out the Trailer for a fresh reminder as to why this time tested story just doesn’t go out of style!
Movie Info
Plot Summary
Disney presents an astonishing true story bursting with hope, heart and courage. Diane Lane and John Malkovich lead a celebrated cast in this inspirational motion picture from the producers of Miracle, Invincible and The Rookie. Behind every legend lies an impossible dream. Witness the spectacular journey of an incredible horse, Secretariat, and the moving story of his unlikely owner, a housewife who risked everything to make him a champion.
Cast
Diane Lane
Penny Chenery
John Malkovich
Lucien Laurin
Dylan Walsh
Jack Tweedy
Dylan Baker
Hollis Chenery
Margo Martindale
Miss Ham
Nelsan Ellis
Eddie Sweat
Fun Random Trivia:
- Not only did Secretariat set the record for the fastest time at the Kentucky Derby (1:59 2/5), each of his quarter-mile splits were faster than the preceding one, which means he was still accelerating at the end of the race. His split times were: 25 1/5, 24, 23 4/5, 23 2/5, and 23.
- Secretariat’s time in the Kentucky Derby is still the record for that race (1:59 2/5). Only one other horse has won it in under two minutes (2001, Monarchos, 1:59.97). Sham, second to Secretariat, may have run it in under two minutes, but there is no official time for him.
- The racing scenes in Secretariat are all recreations except one: the Preakness which is seen on an old TV in the Tweedy family den. That’s historical footage of the actual race.
- Five horses played the part of Secretariat. “Trolley Boy”, the principle horse used was selected by Penny Chenery in a Secretariat look-alike contest in Kentucky, and even walked the Red Carpet at the film premiere in Hollywood. The five horses, four thoroughbreds and a quarter horse were made up with special makeup to replicate the three “white socks”, facial stripe and star.
- The horse used in most of the closeups was named “Longshot”. Although “Trolley Boy” looked more like Secretariat overall, Longshot was deemed more “close-up friendly.”
- Nelsan Ellis (stable hand Eddie Sweat) was nuzzled, bitten in the stomach, and once even got stomped on by the horse during the production.
- Diane Lane called the blond wig that she wore “Peaches.” The hairstyle was modeled after Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and pictures of the former First Lady were tacked up all over the makeup trailer.
- Some of the closeup shots of the racing horses were achieved by attaching lightweight digital cameras to sticks and positioning them close to the horses as they galloped around the track. The horses got used to it, but the jockeys were sometimes startled by them.
- The Triple Crown trophy seen after the 3rd race is the actual trophy, not a replica. It was loaned to the production by the Kentucky Derby Museum, and was human-accompanied on the trip from museum to film set and back.
- Otto Thorwarth, Secretariat’s jockey, is a real jockey who was born in Arkansas, but spent his early life in Canada and picked up the accent. He had to work to lose it for the film. (The other jockeys are also real jockeys, there was much riding to be done and everyone knew actors couldn’t get the horses to perform as required, gauging the distances needed for the various wins, places, and shows. The director says the distances are accurate to within 1/2 length in each recreation.
- Penny Chenery was on set for much of the filming. She was absent when she took an afternoon nap, but otherwise was there each morning and later in the day.
- The scene where Penny Chenery can’t make it to Kate’s play, listens on the phone, and collapses in sobs on the hotel bed was done in one take. Randall Wallace said he was so emotionally involved in the scene he couldn’t have shot another one.
- In the Belmont Stakes, both Secretariat’s winning margin (31 lengths) and his winning time (2:24) still stand after 37 years.
- The words that Diane Lane speaks at the end of the film are from the book of Job, Chapter 39, when God is describing horses. Verse 22: “It laughs at fear, afraid of nothing; it does not shy away from the sword.” Verse 24: “In frenzied excitement it eats up the ground; it cannot stand still when the trumpet sounds.”
- In August 1972 Arthur Hancock fell ill while hunting in Scotland. He died a few weeks later of pancreatic cancer at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee.
Laundry Mom~Angela ♥
