Search - Shergar on DVD

Brandon B. (brando)
Reviewed on 2/16/2013...

I am a big fan of horse movies. This one has few moments of brightness. It is filmed very dark and at many moments it is missing excitement. I had high hopes when starting it but was a little disappointed.

Michelle H. (snoozemouse) from CHEYENNE, WY
Reviewed on 12/18/2010...

This movie is very good. Very good story.

0 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

Dawn M. from LEESVILLE, LA
Reviewed on 7/29/2009...

This film is based on true details of the kidnapping and successful recovery of an Irish champion thoroughbred, Shergar. It is beautifully filmed. A great family movie!

1 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

Shergar

Arleen M. Gardner | 02/06/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The movie has beautiful scenery and music. After reading about Shergar on the inter net I know that there is hardly a word of truth in the movie. That however doesn't make it less entertaining. I enjoyed it a great deal and wanted to know more about the horse."

Shergar Misses the Jump

J. Owen | San Francisco, Ca | 08/04/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Shergar has the potential to intrigue and entertain but falls quite short of its potential. The film flips back and forth between overly-sentimental and down to earth. A combination of many of the cinematic elements lack cohesion, a real shame.

Shergar touts Mickey Rourke as one of the cast. He plays the leader of an ultra violent splinter group of the I.R.A., and the mastermind of a prize horse kidnapping. He looked like he had suffered a plastic surgery botch job, and carted his tanning booth along during the filming of Shergar. To say the least, he was not a believable character.

The other major downside of this film was the awful music which distracted from the film with a loud audio overlay sinking an otherwise okay film.

Don't get me wrong, there are good points to this DVD. Ian Holmes, a very good actor, lights up his character with good cheer, and poetry. Once the boy escapes with the doomed horse, the story becomes interesting. Beautiful landscape and a great "tinker" character fill the second half of this film. There are some lovely scenes in the Irish countryside, and at a horse race held in Co. Clare. Shergar is a beautiful horse, as is My Lady. Shergar is a nice "horse film".
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SHERGAR -- compelling story, performances and scenery

Vaquera | 06/20/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Recently I picked up a DVD of the 1999 movie SHERGAR because it starred Ian Holm and David Warner, two of my favorites, and because as a life-long horse owner, breeder and trainer, I am a sucker for horseflicks. Holm and Warner both had plenty of scenery to chew on, so they did not disappoint, and neither did the movie. I cried buckets at the end. All in all, I think the filmmakers did a good job. There were some painfully Disney-esque moments, but for the most part, the filmmakers practiced reasonable restraint and avoided the gagging-smarm-factor. The location shooting (Isle of Mann) was spectacular.

The ad copy said "Based on a True Story" and I suppose technically that is true. There was a great Irish racehorse named Shergar, and he was kidnapped by the IRA in 1983. What happened after that was completely unknown, until fairly recent (2003) new evidense. Since the kidnapping takes maybe the first 2-3 minutes of the movie, the rest of the movie is completely fictional conjecture. Nonetheless, the filmmakers did an admirable job of creating a compelling (albeit totally fictional) story, with elements of Greek tragedy and bringing to mind Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces.

I was inspired by the movie to visit the internet to learn more. A number of news articles from 2003 filled in a wee bit more actual history. What struck me is the repeated reference to the fact that the kidnappers were not "horse people," and consequently they were not prepared to know how to handle any horse, let alone a high-strung breeding stallion. According to recently uncovered evidense, it appears that the £20 million stallion was probably killed within hours of the kidnapping, simply because his abductors were terrified of him. How interesting.

In some ways, the filmmakers were as ignorant of horses as the original kidnappers, and that is where some of the "painfully Disney-esque" moments came in. However, I've seen far worse sins committed by horse-ignorant filmmakers. All in all, SHERGAR is a good movie.
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