Racing Secretariat To The Oscars

I was going to write a review of the highly enjoyable film "Secretariat," but Andrew O'Hehir at Salon.com has already written the only review that needs to be read. In one length he tackles the story, the direction, the acting, and how the whole thing is highly disturbing in it's portal of race and social unrest. Here is a sample:

"Secretariat" actually goes much further, presenting a honey-dipped fantasy vision of the American past as the Tea Party would like to imagine it, loaded with uplift and glory and scrubbed clean of multiculturalism and social discord.

Not everyone agrees with this assessment of the film, LA Times critic has a great editorial piece on it on his blog "The Big Picture." He argues that while the movie's subtext is there, it also is a movie about the white dominated horse racing world of the seventies, and that's all. Both reviews are though-provoking and touch on an interesting problem that other critics have brought up regarding this year's Oscar season: race

According to a recent article in The Hollywood Reporter this is going to be the whitest Oscar season ever. The article points out that  the Academy can only award the films that get made, so if that's true, does that mean that there are not as many parts for non-white performers? After reading the Salon.com review of "Secretariat" one would think that the reason for the vanilla Oscar race is some nefarious tea party take over of hollywood. I'm not buying it, it sounds a little too much like a whacko script idea and not a reality.

Nevertheless it remains to be seen if "Secretariat" will stir up any tensions regarding it's golden portrayal of a turbulent time or if it will just be another good horse movie. If you enjoy horse films, you should see it, it's fun heart warming stuff, just watch it with an open mind, and think about what you're really seeing.