Animals

 Secretariat (2010)

This week's theme is about animals. I decided to choose the film about the famous race horse Secretariat. Secretariat wasn't your typical horse. This prestigious thoroughbred was the first horse in 25 years to win the Triple Crown in 1973 blowing the competitor away by 31 lengths. He is considered one of the most stunning horses of all time. Aside from the history of him, the Disney movie does portray him with some anthropomorphism. There are times in the film where he and his owner Penny Chenery look at each other in the eyes and you can almost feel their connection through the beautiful cinematography. You can almost see that they are thinking the same thing the morning of the big race. 

This movie can be compared to Life of Pi in a couple of different ways. The first being that animals play key roles in each film. In Life of Pi, the tiger, Richard Parker, is Pi's companion on the life boat. Pi is deathly afraid of Richard Parker for the majority of their journey to land so he keeps his distance. After 200 days of living on a raft attached to the life boat, Pi is sick of it and decides to conquer his fears and starts to live on the boat with Richard Parker. There are many different theories on what the tiger represents in the film, but overall it represents fear. It represents the death, grief and the growing animal instinct the Pi develops over the course of his journey. 

Secretariat isn't nearly as intense of a story as Life of Pi, there is still some symbolism that can be read in it. Horses are generally seen as majestic animals who show determination, endurance, freedom and spirit. I would argue that Secretariat demonstrated that all throughout the film. When he died at the age of 19, an autopsy was done and revealed that Secretariat's heart was 2 and a half times bigger than the average horse. While you could look at the pure facts and say that he was a huge race horse so of course he was going to have bigger organs, or you could apply anthropomorphism and argue that he had the heart of a racer so big where he could accomplish anything. 

Animals add so much to the storytelling element to films. They can add so much more emotion and layers to the story. Both Secretariat and Life of Pi tell very different stories and pull different emotions out of us. If the animals weren't placed in the stories, they would be way less interesting and not as deep of an analysis. 

A great horse and the faith of a brave woman (Roger Ebert)

Putting faith in speed and sinew (New York Times)