And so what if it isn't true? as thundering horse epics go, and even as westerns go, this one isn't bad, especially for one rated PG-13. Good plotting, if a bit far-fetched, good historical detail (and this otter actually had to check an encyclopedia to find out if the country named Iraq (as Iraq, not another name), the Statue of Liberty and Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show all coexisted with the Wounded Knee massacre...and darned if they didn't.

OK, there's a lot of mystical mumbo jumbo in the best PC Native American style, and one is left wondering how it can be that in the beginning of the movie, Hopkins is riding in a thousand mile race, delivering dispatches for the army, and working in the Wild West show all at once? huh? But it doesn't really matter...the scenery and horses are the really important part of this movie.

And indeed there is lots of beautiful scenery, some really nice horses, Omar Sharif doing his curmudgeonly best, some suspense, some good special effects. An undemanding and enjoyable movie. Even if Viggo Mortenson is (as I suspected) totally not a honey once he shed the Aragorn look...ah well.

And, for those of you who look at the ratings, you'll notice that I had to add a new symbol. I watched this one on my laptop computer, a pretty enjoyable experience. Not only was the interface smooth and easy to use, but it was so nice to curl up on the couch with my cat Bob...what an excellent evening.

Except for the interface with Mr. Otter, who says that he was so traumatized by the awfulness of Hellboy that he doesn't want to see any movies for a while (a blatant falsehood, to my thinking, but we'll leave it there) and that was why I watched it alone on the computer. Then Mr. Otter claimed that I talked to the screen more than is my wont when watching movies...but I think he was wrong, it was just odd for him to be the one trying to read while I watched the movie, instead of the other way around. We'll see how this goes on...and how Mr. Otter does with it...but for now, my laptop is a happy happy thing for movie watching.