Shergar

The movie Shergar ought to come with a warning.
As a devoted movie-lover and horse-owner, I must say I regret watching this movie. The only good that came from watching it is at least now I know who Shergar was.

The failure of this film rests entirely in its plot, which is pure fantasy (or nightmare) and utterly unrealistic. The ending is so atrocious it destroyed the little bit of pleasure that I experienced watching beautiful horses and scenery.

Before I purchased the movie (on sale), I read the description of the plot thinking it might be similar to "Flash." "Flash" is a very well made fictional Disney movie about a boy who steals back his horse from an abusive owner and rides it from Georgia to New Jersey to save its life and be reunited with his merchant-marine father.

Instead, the movie "Shergar" should come with a warning. It is far more similar to "Phar Lap," a well-produced drama which condenses the life of Australia's most famous flat-track Thoroughbred and ends with Phar Lap's...

SHERGAR -- compelling story, performances and scenery
Recently I picked up a DVD of the 1999 movie SHERGAR because it starred Ian Holm and David Warner, two of my favorites, and because as a life-long horse owner, breeder and trainer, I am a sucker for horseflicks. Holm and Warner both had plenty of scenery to chew on, so they did not disappoint, and neither did the movie. I cried buckets at the end. All in all, I think the filmmakers did a good job. There were some painfully Disney-esque moments, but for the most part, the filmmakers practiced reasonable restraint and avoided the gagging-smarm-factor. The location shooting (Isle of Mann) was spectacular.

The ad copy said "Based on a True Story" and I suppose technically that is true. There was a great Irish racehorse named Shergar, and he was kidnapped by the IRA in 1983. What happened after that was completely unknown, until fairly recent (2003) new evidense. Since the kidnapping takes maybe the first 2-3 minutes of the movie, the rest of the movie is completely fictional...

Horsenappers!
Based upon actual events, this is a speculation upon the fate of Shergar, the five-year-old racing stallion who was stolen from an Irish stud farm in 1983 and never seen again. A well-drilled IRA contingent led by Gavin O'Rourke (Mickey Rourke) makes off with the horse and hides him on the farm of the reluctant Garrity (David Warner), trading upon his family's connections to the provisionals. What they don't know is that Garrity has a stableboy sleeping in his loft. Kevin (Tom Walsh) is a fugitive from a juvenile detention facility who never met his father but knows the man was a jockey and dreams of being one himself. He quickly bonds with the concealed stallion, and when O'Rourke's attempts to extort a ransom from the animal's owners are rebuffed and the horse is threatened with death, Kevin knows he can't allow it. He takes off across the Irish countryside in a wild race for sanctuary, unable to surrender to the authorities for fear he'll be returned to prison, knowing only...

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