Hildago

Buffalo Bill Cody's huge western shows included Annie Oakley and her spectacular shooting and the great Sioux chief Sitting Bull riding in recreations of the battle of Wounded knee. One of the riding actors in the production, many of whom were working cowboys, was Frank Hopkins. Presented as historical, with supposedly heroic U.S. Calvary battling attacking Sioux Indians, the true story was horrifying. Native Americans, enduring forced evacuation from their home of thousands of years were slaughtered. Their spiritual dances of hope for the redemption of their culture had been misunderstood as plans for aggression.

I recommend 'Hildago', an archetypal story set in the end of the era of the wild west. No matter that this movie is based on a "true story" of Frank Hopkins' fantastical memoirs, in which Hopkins rides his mustang across terrible deserts in an Arabian endurance race. The cinematography is awesome and moving, the story is wonderful. Interestingly, a wild mustang living on the edge of minimal in harsh surrounding, could possibly have won such a race.

Beautiful and fascinating, 'Hildago', a story of the end of an American ending, will entertain and educate.

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