The Movie Secretariat

I remember when Secretariat ran his races in 1973. I had just returned to Michigan from a long stint in Southern California, and some parts of it I have forgotten, conveniently or whatever. But Secretariat clearly captured the imagination then, and I can never forget those days of being so interested in a racehorse.

I just saw the movie which is probably more about the family who owned the horse than the horse itself, which in itself is a surprise. I read a story at Twitter about Ron Turcotte and the jockey who portrayed him in the film which intrigued me, so I decided to jot a few notes about it here.
I just put on this blog the two videos that the Greek composer has about Alexander the Great, one which is the orchestra which features the composer at the end of the film, and the other, a video explaining Alexander away to people who do not know anything about him with the same composer's music in the background. That is the one to which I referred that the video was not so great as I found it to be a bit short in substance but I appreciate the effort to publicize Alexander for all its worth.

I had no idea that there was so much idolatry about Alexander until I began to study him. Lord, he has more fans than Secretariat had had. And Secretariat no doubt is a superspecial horse, probably never likely to have another 3 year old horse capable of achieving the same kind of feat that Secretariat had done...the Belmont proved that to all who followed him.

The movie is intended to show the strength and power of a woman who has a mind of her own and a determination to live up to her father's belief in her and himself. It is a good film for that reason, no matter whether concocted or for real. One can never know. If anything, I would imagine that Penny was a lot stronger in person than the portrayal that Diane Lane gave of her. But Diane did a good job but was a bit too light handed in an industry where women when up against men must show real strong shoulders and backbone...Penny has earned my admiration, thanks to the film.

I do not know that the soundtrack of Secretariat is memorable or not...the story does seem to overpower the music, but I will be sure to check it out now that I have posted these videos of a real Greek composing a score for Alexander. It is rather stirring, isn't it?