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Secretariat
Metascore
61 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 36 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 21 out of 36
  2. Mixed: 14 out of 36
  3. Negative: 1 out of 36
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  1. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    100
    It is a great film about greatness, the story of the horse and the no less brave woman who had faith in him.
  2. Variety
    Reviewed by: Justin Chang
    90
    Conventional but rousingly effective picture.
  3. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    88
    Grace is grace, and however it arrives, there's no denying its presence.
  4. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    80
    An engaging sports movie about the greatest racehorse ever and his female owner who literally bets the farm on his supremacy.
  5. Movieline
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    80
    What you DO get with Secretariat is a picture that, unlike its bland predecessor Seabiscuit, actually captures some of the thrill of racing.
  6. Boxoffice Magazine
    Reviewed by: Pete Hammond
    80
    Particularly impressive is veteran cinematographer Dean Semler's inventive cinematography that manages to put the audience right in the middle of the races like never before.
  7. Time
    Reviewed by: Mary Pols
    80
    This isn't a passionate, showy part, but it's a finely drawn performance, worthy of a veteran actress (Lane) who started her career as Secretariat did in the 1970s (in A Little Romance) and has since earned a champion status of her own.
  8. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Carrie Rickey
    75
    The result, if occasionally forced, is also irresistible.
  9. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Ann Hornaday
    75
    It's tough to guess who will enjoy Secretariat more -- filmgoers who remember the extraordinary events of 1973, when the chestnut 3-year-old won the first Triple Crown in 25 years, or those for whom the story is brand-new.
  10. New York Observer
    Reviewed by: Rex Reed
    75
    This is one terrific movie about one terrific horse. It enthralls on so many levels-emotional, cinematic, historic.
  11. Arizona Republic
    Reviewed by: Bill Goodykoontz
    70
    Secretariat was such a commanding presence, the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years, a Time magazine coverboy, the focus of the public's imagination during his pursuit, that any excuse to relive that excitement is worthwhile, and Secretariat gives us one.
  12. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Andrea Gronvall
    70
    The period details are so exact they're occasionally distracting, the use of gospel music at the end is questionable, and director Randall Wallace (We Were Soldiers) shows a surer hand in the track sequences than the domestic scenes. Still, there's no denying this movie has heart.
  13. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    67
    A conventional story, conventionally told.
  14. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    67
    This pleasantly rote movie will rouse you.
  15. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: M. E. Russell
    67
    It's all mildly uplifting in the way of an unchallenging sermon.
  16. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    63
    If it's hip to be square, then this racehorse movie is the ultimate in cornball cool.
  17. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    63
    Secretariat ultimately delivers where it matters, in the home stretch.
  18. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    63
    The true story of the recordbreaking Secretariat is pretty stupendous as is. It didn't need schmaltzing up.
  19. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    63
    The story as a whole seems stale and overly familiar.
  20. New Orleans Times-Picayune
    Reviewed by: Mike Scott
    63
    A reasonably well-made biopic, with crowd-pleasing moments, but one that -- despite that title -- isn't really about the animal.
  21. St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    Reviewed by: Calvin Wilson
    63
    Only a heartfelt performance by Diane Lane rescues the film from abject mediocrity.
  22. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Joe Neumaier
    60
    Wallace layers on some era-specific meaning to Chenery, who seems to be simply following her lineage, thanks to Lane's quietly dignified performance. Malkovich is more fun, though Laurin isn't as outrageous as the movie thinks he is.
  23. Time Out New York
    Reviewed by: Joshua Rothkopf
    60
    Lane, experiencing her career heyday, is sweet enough to have you rooting for her, even if her journey to the winner's circle is an odds-on favorite.
  24. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    60
    I enjoyed it immensely, flat-footed dialogue and implausible situations and all. Which doesn't stop me from believing that in its totality Secretariat is a work of creepy, half-hilarious master-race propaganda almost worthy of Leni Riefenstahl, and all the more effective because it presents as a family-friendly yarn about a nice lady and her horse.
  25. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    60
    Secretariat shows no fear of the sentimental, and that's putting it mildly. This is an old-fashioned, super-genteel family movie that opens with an equine quote from the Book of Job and makes ample use of the Edwin Hawkins Singers' gospel song "Oh Happy Day."
  26. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    60
    The bigger and truer stars of this enjoyable, sometimes accidentally entertaining movie are the five horses that take turns playing Secretariat.
  27. Tampa Bay Times
    Reviewed by: Steve Persall
    58
    It's Lane who's saddled with dragging this nag over the finish line, with her cliched portrayal of another single-minded woman beating men at their own game.
  28. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Keith Phipps
    58
    The film ultimately feels like a well-trod journey to a familiar destination with not enough wonder along the way.
  29. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Phillips
    50
    Secretariat isn't bad but it's precisely what you'd expect.
  30. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Amy Biancolli
    50
    In Secretariat, the fictionalized bits are simple exaggerations - broad, Disneyish adjustments in races and other realities.
  31. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Rick Groen
    50
    When the movie climactically reproduces that exhilarating Belmont, the fiction is just a pale shadow of the fact, and the realized myth that lives in our memory dies on the screen.
  32. Orlando Sentinel
    Reviewed by: Roger Moore
    50
    A well-acted tale of an underdog's triumph that sorely lacks an underdog, it teeters between pleasantly generic film biography and rank manipulation.
  33. Slate
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    50
    Secretariat is a by-the-numbers sports-hero picture with an inexpressive hero (horses look great in motion, but they can't carry a close-up) and a preordained outcome.
  34. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    50
    Disney studios, director Randall Wallace, and his screenwriter Mike Rich, obviously targeting a "faith-based" audience à la "The Blind Side," lard the soundtrack with "Oh Happy Day" and readings from the Book of Job.
  35. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Nick Schager
    40
    At least the formulaic race footage itself is vigorous; the schmaltzy mythmaking script, on the other hand, deserves a one-way trip to the glue factory.
  36. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    30
    Secretariat stumbles along beneath the weight of leaden life lessons. They're dispensed at frequent intervals by Diane Lane, who does better than anyone had a right to expect, since she is saddled with dialogue of exceptional dreadfulness.
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User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
6.2 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 58 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 21
  3. Negative: 3 out of 21
  1. fantasy
    4
    This could have been a great movie if not for Hollywood turning Secretariat the horse into a full blown version of Rocky. Poncho Martin trainer of Sham, Secretariat's arch rival "Secretariat is going down". Folks it never happened. Secretariat was the BEST racehorse that ever peered thru a brial. His accomplishments are virtually unmatched by any horse present, past or future. Why Hollywood filmed the Belmont Stakes at Keeneland and show horses racing on poly turf not dirt is beyond me. For anyone to think that any horsemen would start a fire in a wastepaper basket in a barn surrounded by hay, or that the trainer would say he was afraid to hold the horse as he is out to get him is pure Hollywood. And do you think any trainer would hand a multi million dollar thoroughbred to an owner to give a sponge bath? Basically this is a good family movie in which the outcome is known from the moment the movie starts. John Malkovich portrays a Hall of Fame trainer in Lucien Laurin and plays him as a joker for comic relief. Lucien was a great trainer and is nothing like that. As for Diane Lane she is always lovely to look at. She does her best to portray Secretariat's owner who took on a male dominated sport. What the movie fails to show is the price she had to pay with her family to achieve success. But then again this is a Disney movie and only Happy Endings are approved. My recommendation is that if you are unfamiliar with Secretariat you can feel comfortable in taking the family to see it. But if you are a true horse lover or horsemen you are going to be very disappointed. Secretariat the horse is just a supporting character in a movie that should have been about him.…… Full Review »
  2. Dalem
    4
    A little too squeaky clean. If you've ever worked with horses, you know that horse barns smell, that there is often mud and worse, and that there are flies and bugs. If horse racing were as pristine as presented, it just wouldn't be the same. Much of the dialogue of this movie is contrived and artificial. I also didn't buy into the idea of the millionaire woman having to struggle to save the farm. There was actually very little to create much dramatic tension in this movie, and Diane Lane seemed rather stiff in her role. The Secretariat I remember was a bigger horse than the horse in the movie. There was something almost monstrous about him. The horse in this movie is Disneyfied down to a pretty thing. At one point they show some hippies, and even they are clean and odor-free. The best thing about the movie is a quote from the Book of Job about the pure god-made monstrous energy of the horse, but the movie fails to present us with anything like this energy.… Full Review »
  3. Tony
    5
    Far inferior to last decade's "Seabiscuit," but sure to be a crowd-pleaser, this is a very generic film about a remarkable horse and owner. Diane Lane does not command the screen like Sandra Bullock in last year's similarly-themed "The Blind Side," and the dialogue is laughably bad at times.… Full Review »
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