'Hidalgo' hero tells tall tales, and so does the film

As wind-strafed Saharan dunes crash in angry waves, a lone cowboy and his humble mustang ride the crest of a sandstorm into legend. Hidalgo is the name of the mixed-breed steed who bests a field of pure-bred Arabians in a 3,000-mile race from Aden to Aqaba in 1890.

It is likewise the name of the overstuffed Disney live-action adventure that doesn't embroider this legend but, according to many accounts, weaves it from whole cloth.

Suggested by the life of Frank T. Hopkins, tall-tale teller and identity thief, Hidalgo is an intermittently savory stew of Pecos Bill, Laurence of Arabia, and Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. Not surprisingly, it was written by Spirit's scribe, John Fusco, who has a passion for ponies ordinarily found in 70-year-old rail birds and 7-year-old girls.

Fusco and director Joe Johnston, who previously made the beloved October Sky, subscribe to the wisdom purveyed by The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance: When the legend is better than the facts, run with the legend.

Let it be known that they don't just run with it, they trot, canter and gallop into the sunset. The pair bring admirable storytelling and cinematographic skills to this allegory of a half-breed rider and half-breed Old Paint whose hearts are no less pure than the sheikhs (Omar Sharif!) and pedigreed stallions who are their competitors.

Alas, the filmmakers' yarn is snagged by depictions of Arab characters that might have raised eyebrows even in 1890. "Infidel!" growls a Moroccan chieftain at Hopkins, played by Viggo Mortensen. (Having shaved off Aragorn's beard, the self-contained Mortensen reveals a rugged beauty that increasingly resembles that of Henry Fonda.)

Hopkins' claims of being the son of a Lakota Sioux princess and a U.S. cavalry officer, of being a dispatch rider at Wounded Knee, of starring in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, and of entering the Ocean of Fire race on the Arabian peninsula pack a lot of self-mythologizing into Hidalgo's saddlebags.

The first act fuses together the openings of The Last Samurai and Seabiscuit in that our human hero, having witnessed the cavalry massacre of Native Americans at Wounded Knee, is now an alcoholic trading on his frontier exploits for Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. The Ocean of Fire race - in which Arabian horse breeders hope to prove the inferiority of American stock - offers Hopkins a chance to reclaim his self-respect. And when the American mixed-breed challenges the Arabian stallions, it offers the filmmakers a chance to indulge in a little old-fangled jingoism. Hidalgo is the first Middle East western.

Contact movie critic Carrie Rickey

at 215-854-5402 or crickey@phillynews.com.

Hidalgo ** 1/2 (out of four stars)

Produced by Casey Silver, directed by Joe Johnston, written by John Fusco, photography by Shelly Johnson, music by James Newton Howard, distributed by Touchstone Pictures.

Running time: 2 hours, 16 mins.

Frank Hopkins. . . Viggo Mortensen

Jazira. . . Zuleikha Robinson

Sheikh Riyadh. . . Omar Sharif

Lady Davenport. . . Louise Lombard

Aziz. . . Adam Alexi-Malle

Parent's guide: PG-13 (violence, sexual threat)

Playing at: area theaters