The Buffalo Bill Center of the Westhidalgo is based on a true story.
Disney's Touchstone Pictures is releasing an $80 million film, not on one of the famous characters from the Old West, but instead on a new generation.
John Fusco wrote the script for Hidalgo, the legend of Frank Hopkins and his mustang.Viggo Mortensen is playing one of the greatest long riders in equestrian history, who was supposedly arriving 13 days early in a monthlong race from Texas to Vermont in 1886.
That feat is referred to in the movie, but the heart of the picture is the winning of a cross-country race on the Arabian Peninsula in 1891.
It is easy to see how Touchstone Pictures was touched by this story as you can see the scenes now.
Why are some horse enthusiasts and historians saying that the famous race and the exaggerator who bragged about it aren't worth a moment of screen time?
Touchstone said the film was based on a true story when it was promoting the October 2003 release.Fusco says the phrase was cut because of all the controversy surrounding the hero of the film.In Touchstone's final movie pitch for the March 2004 release, the studio goes all the way back to say that the movie is based on a true story.Unbroken.Unbeaten.
The movie will not use the phrase even though the trailers have not been changed, according to Fusco.When the trailer still leaves the audience believing the story is true, what do those omittances matter?
The honor of being invited to join the Royal Geographical Society in London was celebrated by the Long Riders' Guild.The members decided to publish a special version of their website to honor the historical long riders, like Jonathan Swift, whose ride across Ireland inspired the novel.
Various accounts from his own biography to newspaper and magazine articles, as well as the legendary ride in Arabia, led Buffalo Bill Cody to hire him to ride with the Wild West.
The Guild's CuChullaine O'Reilly tried to verify the claims but could not find any documentation.He claims to have uncovered a lot of equestrian lies, and named his web page after them.
He was not the only one looking.Historians were in places where the races supposedly started or ended, both here and abroad, as well as officials who specialize in Buffalo Bill.None came up with anything to support the story.
There is no mention of a race from Galveston to Vermont in any of the newspapers we referenced between 1889 and 1890.
We couldn't find any Frank T. Hopkins in our database of known cast members, acquaintances, employees or friends.
We have not been able to corroborate any of the facts you sent us.
"Hopkins was not the great endurance rider of the Old West, but he had undoubtedly been one of America's most talented and enduring liars."
John Fusco was researching American Indian horses when he found out about his obscure hero.He notes that the old-time mustangers knew of him.He was written about for 70 years in books on mustang horse history.
It was the kind of story a screenwriter couldn't pass up, and the film was well into production when Touchstone told him that it was getting complaints about the story.
Fusco remembers that his first reaction was "who else in the world knows about Frank Hopkins, let alone has the time to put such effort in trying to debunk him."
Fusco says that it has helped him access lost writings on horsemanship and distance riding by Hopkins that have made him more fascinated by the man.Touchstone has decided to make a movie out of the 70 years of published writings on Hopkins.
The debunkers are free to make a movie about Hopkins falling off his horse if they want.We are not in the documentary business.
Fusco is standing firm that Frank T.Hopkins was a true-life figure and his accomplishments were acknowledged by respected horsemen who knew him and wrote about him.The oral tradition that has survived in the mustang horse world is what inspired my screenplay.
How much of the movie was true?It is a good Western.This is the movies.Print the legend when it becomes fact.
There is a good reason why there are no contemporary accounts of long-distance racing.The kind of racing he did was monitored by the S.P.C.A.It was the time.The same subterfuge was used for endurance races as it was for cockfighting, ratting and baiting.You are more likely to find coverage of cockfights in the sports pages of that era than you are of extreme endurance racing.
Fusco is being defended by his old friend and True West contributing editor Paul Hutton.He stresses that this is a movie.You should not go to a movie to get your history.You are writing fiction when you put words in someone's mouth.A movie is not real.
According to a Western historian who has consulted on several Hollywood movies, he is surprised when they get accurate information.In the Plainsmen, the only accurate things were a Civil War statue and wallpaper.
He remembers a time when he asked a Hollywood executive why they didn't just make a movie about Juliet and Romeo and give it a happy ending.The Hollywood guy said that it would be a bad thing.