Secretariat (2010) Trailer

For all the nostalgic gloss of Dean Semler's cinematography on the inspired-by-an-inspiring-true-story-meant-to-inspire-you Secretariat, it is a few of the horseracing sequences that stand out. Semler switches to digital camerawork, getting in down and dirty along the trampling hooves of the horses and high above the ground from the point-of-view of the bouncing, grasping jockey. It's a strange aesthetic choice, considering how the rest of the movie looks, and perhaps the only one to properly portray the exertion and ferocity of an equine in full gallop.

The moments are prominent among the rest of the movie because they are authentic. In the middle of inspiring speeches to people, animals, and inanimate objects and the ham-handed assertions of how the odds are stacked against just about every major character in the story, here, in some small way at least, is something honest in a true story.