Hidalgo is a 2004 film based on the legend of the American distance rider Frank Hopkins and his mustang Hidalgo, and recounts Hopkins' racing his horse in Arabia in 1891 against Bedouin riding pure-blooded Arabian horses. The movie was written by John Fusco and directed by Joe Johnston. It stars Viggo Mortensen, Zuleikha Robinson, and Omar Sharif. In 1891, wealthy Sheikh Riyadh sends his attaché Aziz to invite American Frank Hopkins , and his mustang, Hidalgo, to enter the "Ocean of Fire," an annual 3,000-mile survival race across the Najd desert region, a race traditionally restricted... to pure-bred Arabian horses. Hopkins had been a cowboy and a dispatch rider for the United States government. In this capacity, he had carried a message to the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment, authorizing the attack at Wounded Knee that resulted in massacre of a band of Lakota Sioux. While working as a stunt rider in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, Hopkins and his horse are advertised as "the world's greatest distance horse and rider". The Arabs consider the al-Khamsa line to be the greatest distance horses.
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| Release date: | February 17, 2004 |
| Directed by: | Joe Johnston |
| Rated: |  |
| Runtime: | 136 Minutes |
| Producer: | Casey Silver |
| Editor: | Robert Dalva |
| Music by: | James Newton Howard |
| Cinematography: | Shelly Johnson |
| Screenplay by: | John Fusco |
| Estimated budget: | $78,000,000 |
| Genre: | Adventure, Western |