Excellent adaptation.

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

Blistering performances.

Although the movie has been "Disneyed" (however, less than the usual Disney fare) the film is an inspiring recount of Secretariat's run to the 1973 Triple Crown of thoroughbred horse racing. The horse itself inspired admiration from many sports lovers, and even the casual racing fan, as being a "special" athlete, albeit the four-legged variety. He made many lists of the top 100 athletes of the 20th century, and has been memorialized continuously by the horse racing community. This film puts his legend on celluloid for everyone to see. It also tells the story of Penny Chenery Tweedy, who elbowed her way into a man's world to save the family horse farm. Some of the facts might be stretched and dramatized, but the message it sends is one of remarkable will and measures the heart of a champion. A good watch, especially the Triple Crown re-creations.

Housewife Penny Chenery (Diane Lane) has to take over her family's Meadow Stables from her sick father after her mother's death. She's the quintessential underdog in the world of horse breeding. With the help of trainer Lucien Laurin (John Malkovich), she produces the most important horse in recent history ultimately the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years.There are some questions about the truth in this movie. Although I have sympathies for the complaint, modern audiences have to set aside their naivety. Unless the movie is labeled a documentary, there isn't any good complaining about authenticity.This is a very good traditional underdog movie. Of course, everything is against them. I'm sure Disney has smooth out all the rough edges. I'm sure they just plain thrown out the rough edges. Diane Lane is great as the smart gutsy heroine. All the basics of David versus Goliath are properly included. There is nothing unsuspected to derail this.

Secretariat (2010) :What gives us inspiration for some it is the deeds of others and for some it is spirituality for me it is movies.I have seen lot of inspirational movies but none better that Secretariat there hasn't been a movie in the recent years that has inspired me more than this one , i cannot believe it took me three years to watch this amazing movie ,you would have watched some of the sports movies prior to this but the things that make this a phenomenal is the Story , Acting and Accuracy of the facts by not deviating from the true event itself , Diane lane did a exceptional job as did John Malkovich they both deserved an Oscar for this but after seeing the recent academy awards and the people who have won them it is safe to say that it is not the performances like this that don't deserve academy awards but it is the academy awards that doesn't deserve them,nonetheless the movie is beautifully shot and there is nothing more beautiful than to see a Race horse sprint and fly away to victory and till this date it is considered the greatest racing horse of all time."More than three thousand years ago a man named Job complained to God about all his troubles and the Bible tells us that God answered. Do you give the horse its strength or clothe its neck with a flowing mane? Do you make him leap like a locust, striking terror with his proud snorting? He paused fiercely, rejoicing in his strength and charges into the fray. He laughs at fear, afraid of nothing, He does not shy away from the sword. The quiver rattles against his side, along with the flashing spear and lance. In frenzied excitement he eats up the ground. He cannot stand still when the trumpet sounds" -Penny Chenery

In many ways this movie is like the young Secretariat himself. It comes from a great pedigree (backstory) and has tons of potential but it doesn't quite have the right jockey (direction) to master its power.The direction, acting, and script can be somewhat weak and the movie doesn't seem to understand the story's natural beauty. For some reason, the movie recreates the races play-by-play. In the Belmont race, it includes a famous line, but the recreation doesn't capture the same power as Chic Anderson's original call. In fact, they omit several dramatic and powerful lines, especially in the Belmont race, in favor of a poem-gimmick that is used awkwardly.What the movie does right is it includes a surprising amount of historical detail that really adds to the drama. From Secretariat "throwing his head around" in starting gates to extremely accurate recreations of his most notorious races. And even the dramatized competitive subplot between the Sham team and Secretariat team seems to work to build up tension.In the end, the movie does a good job of bringing several elements of the Secretariat story together into a whole which is especially helpful for people who don't know how the story ends. The details are there, but the director and writer should have taken a character's advice and "just let (the story) run". In the end, they act like the inexperienced jockey who couldn't handle Secretariat. This doesn't make the movie bad (I mean, how could it be? It's such a great story), it just doesn't quite capture the magic to make the movie the champion it should be.** EXTRA ** If you don't mind spoiling the results of the final race for yourself, check out this mix on YouTube of the final race. It mixes real footage and audio with the score from the film. It's brilliant and far more dramatic than the movie version. Just remember, you will see the results of the final race of the movie if you watch this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V18ui3Rtjz4)