An old style instant classic that rises like a phoenix from the summer ashes to resurrect the specter of quality filmaking....just in time to get our hopes up for fall.

Rating: 9/10 (28 July 2003)

Beautiful on every level, this film captures an era past unlike any film since "Titanic"....without that epic's plasticine anachronisms. It manages to represent the tragedy and triumphs of the first four decades of the twentieth century simply by telling the story of three broken but unbowed men who believed in a downtrodden little horse which normally would never have stood a chance. Through stunning but unshowy photography, a moving but miraculously unsappy script, and three performances which can only be described as superb, the audience is taken from the frenetic frenzy of modern life (and the fractured fraudulence of the standard summer blockbuster wannabe). Which may mean that a massive part of the modern audience may be unwilling to sit back and give up 140 minutes to allow this masterwork to entrance them.....It's # 5 opening weekend box office slot was respectable....until one looks at the quality of numbers one through four. Still...if any film deserves to be a word of mouth mega-hit which starts slow and then steals the race from behind this one does. If you love movies...if you have ever loved an animal....if you recognize Jeff Bridges as one of the best actors of the past 30 years...See Tobey McGuire as the great hope among the current crop of up-and-comers.... and want to see Chris Cooper DESERVE an Oscar, please go to this movie (and join me in rabidly anticipating the DVD).