Frank Hopkins (Viggo Mortensen) is a dispatch rider who, along with his horse, Hidalgo, has a reputation as one of the fastest riders in the United States. After delivering a message to the U.S. Calvary, he witnesses the slaughter of hundreds of Native Americans in what is known as the Wounded Knee Massacre. As the one who delivered the orders, Frank feels partially responsible for the massacre. He soon becomes so distraught that he gives up racing to become a stunt rider in Buffalo Bill Cody's (J. K. Simmons) Wild West show where Hidalgo is advertised as one of the greatest horses in the world. Halfway across the world, Sheikh Riyadh (Omar Sharif) hears of Cody's claims and challenges Frank and Hidalgo to race in the Ocean of Fire, a 3,000-mile race across the Arabian Desert.
Frank is reluctant to enter the race, but eventually makes the trip to the Middle East. Once there, he and his horse are ridiculed by the rest of the riders, some of whom are determined to keep the cowboy and his "impure" horse from finishing the race.
When it sticks to the main race plot, Hidalgo is a fun action movie in the vein of the Indiana Jones trilogy. However, it is burdened with unnecessary side-plots involving the Sheikh's daughter and a British horse breeder. Of the two, the one involving the Sheikh's daughter is the only one that adds something to the main plot since it leads to one of the movie's bigger action set pieces. The one involving the breeder, on the other hand, does little more than muddle up the main plot by introducing throwaway characters and makes the movie feel longer than it probably should.
Another of the movie's minor flaws it that it never establishes its identity. Although the movie's theme of not "going through life hiding what God made you" is supported well, there's never that one crystallizing moment where everything comes together. Frank doesn't change much throughout the movie and is essentially the same person at the end of his journey as he was in the beginning. Although this isn't that big of a deal for an action movie, the movie hammers in so many examples that it is hard to not expect some kind of payoff. While this probably won't matter to most viewers, it puts up enough of a barrier that it is hard to connect with Frank.
As far as the Blu-Ray transfer is concerned, Hidalgo looks great. Although there isn't much in the way of scenery (most of the movie takes place in a desert, after all), two of the movie's bigger special effects sequences really benefit from the better picture quality. The Blu-ray version also comes with two extras; a short piece detailing the movie's special effects and another about Spanish Mustangs and horse breeding.
Although it has its issues, Hidalgo is still a fun action movie and worth a watch.
