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In the final leg of the race, after Frank has taken the saddle off of Hidalgo, there are many shots of Frank riding Hidalgo. In one of the slightly wider shots that shows Frank, Hidalgo's back, and Hidalgo's neck, you can see the back of an English saddle under Frank's butt, even though he's supposed to be riding bareback. See more...

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Hidalgo (2004) - 15 corrections

Directed by Joe Johnston, starring Omar Sharif, Viggo Mortensen (add more)

Genres: Action, Adventure, Drama

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click "edit" under an entry, then choose "correct entry". You can also submit corrections for corrections, if you think a mistake has been unfairly removed.

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During the last scene, when it showed the hundreds of horses running in the field, it appeared that there was a person holding on to a horse's tail and being dragged on the ground as the horse ran. [Lots of wide shots of all those horses here. A timecode or better description would be good, as I see no such person. Too vague.]
Edit Corrected by John W Rosa
When Frank is handcuffed to the pole after he is yelled at for having Jazira in his tent and the people come and attack the place where they are, there is a shot of Jazira trying to help him out of the cuffs. When they show his hands, it is so obvious that they are not his real hands. They look much younger than Frank really is. There are other scenes where you see his hands and they are completely different. How difficult is it to use the same actors hands for a single shot? [The short shot used is from the side, in heavy shadow. Determining the age of the hand's owner is just about impossible at normal speed (and even in slo-mo, not definitive).]
Edit Corrected by John W Rosa
When the evil sheik is about to shoot at Jazira and Frank, Frank shoots him first, in the hand. The shot would have made him drop the gun, not take the time to throw it off to the side. [No 'time' is taken at all. He is aiming a rifle using two hands. The shot hits his left hand, he winces in pain as he yanks his hands outward. The rifle drops down and slightly left. It is not 'thrown'.]
Edit Corrected by John W Rosa
The first rider to fall out of the race has a horse that trips and skins its "knee". The rider then kills it and kisses it near the eye. The horse blinks several times. [The fake 'dead' horse never blinks. Note the distorted lip and open mouth that never moves - that would take some unique training if the horse were real and alive.]
Edit Corrected by John W Rosa Time
Watch one of the racers as he looks through a telescope during the first part of the race. He lowers the telescope, then turns it to himself and tries to shorten/close it by pushing it against his hand. He misses the first time, the telescope going past his hand and brushing along his torso. Then he quickly gets it right. [Why would this be a movie mistake?? This is a character mistake. He simply missed, which happens frequently in real life.]
Edit
When Hidalgo falls into the stake trap and gets a stake through his leg, he wouldn't be able to put much weight on it. When a leopard attacks Hidalgo, he rears up on his hind feet. When he puts his front feet down again, if you watch, he puts his right, front leg down first just about every time. If Hidalgo was really injured then he wouldn't put his right leg down first because it takes more weight. [Hidalgo lands on his left front leg, not the right.]
Edit
Contrary on what the film claims to be based on "an incredible true story," the story of an American cowboy participating in a trans-Arabian horse race is based on fabricated stories. The cowboy, Frank Hopkins, was known as a "pathological liar." [Although the movie does add things that are untrue, Frank Hopkins did participate in a 3,000 mile endurance race in Arabia in 1890. He also competed in and won over 400 endurance races, and trained and was an advocator for preserving mustangs. Go to www.frankhopkins.com for information on his life.]
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When Hidalgo fell into the Pit Frank lost his revolver. He never recovered it, but still gave it away at the end of the movie. [While we do not see Frank recover his revolver, he stayed in the area of the pit while he made a fire and worked on Hidalgo's wound. It only makes sense that at some point he would have gone into the pit and picked up his gun. We see it in the holster after he finishes with Hidalgo's leg and again when he is going to kill Hidalgo.]
Edit
At the end of the movie when Frank releases Hidalgo into the wild, Hidalgo is still wearing horse shoes. If a horse was really set free, his shoes would be removed first. [Well, really you SHOULD remove the shoes, but you don't HAVE to remove them. They'll eventually fall off. This is more a scene showing bad judgement than a mistake.]
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If Prince Bin Al Reeh wins the race, Jazira will become his 5th wife, but the Koran only allows men to take 4 wives. [Technically correct but it was designed to prevent men from having more wives and children than they can support and is often ignored in the cases of the rich and powerful. Ibn Saud had 22 wives and Mohammed himself more then 16. A Prince could certainly afford 5 wives.]
Edit
When there's a fight on the boat taking Hidalgo and Frank to the race, Frank gets smashed in the face with a shovel, giving him a black eye on his right eye. In the next scene it's gone. [Just because it's the next scene doesn't mean it was soon after. It was probably a bit of a trip to get across the ocean; so there was time to heal, especially since he was putting ice on it.]
Edit
In the scene where Frank is playing the drunken clown and loses control of Hidalgo, Hidalgo flips Frank off of him and into the audience. When this happens, Frank's hat falls off and you see it on the ground, but when Frank comes out of the stands, his hat is magically back on his head. [His hat is on the ground, he is not wearing it when he comes out. You can see him put it back on.]
Edit
When Frank is first learning about the race the guy with the head dress is wearing contacts. You can tell when he lifts his head up and the light shines on his face, you can see a perfect ring around his eyes. I didn't think they had contacts in the 1890's. [Glass contacts have been around for close to 200 years.]
Edit
In the scene where Jazira's servant is approaching Frank's tent to discover that his Master and Frank are huddled together, we can see foot prints that were left from previous takes that were not removed between takes. [Those are Jazira's footprints, that's how the servant finds her, he is following her steps in the dirt.]
Edit
In the scene where Frank Hopkins releases Hidalgo, the horse is shod. A shod horse could not survive in the wild. Even if the horse threw a shoe and did not break a leg,it could not survive with the other three. [Actually, horses can survive with shoes on. Their hooves grow out and either the nail heads on the bottom of the shoe are worn off (causing the shoe to fall off) or it will catch on something and rip out, usually with minimal damage. I also do endurance riding and my horse's shoes have been worn off or fall off all the time with no damage to his hooves whatsoever. Also, horses can survive with one, two, or three shoes because they will all fall off eventually.]
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