Little did I know what this movie would be like when I taped it. Next to the fact that it was a drama, the title "Shergar" was about the only thing that I knew, making me think that this would be an Asian movie. I had never heard of that name before and I certainly didn't know that it once belonged to a famous race horse that was kidnapped in 1983. I don't even know if it ever made it to the news over here and even if it did I wouldn't have noticed it, being only five years old at the time...
Shergar is a race horse that has been kidnapped by a sub-group of the IRA. They have hidden it on a farm far away from where they abducted it and now ask for a ransom of five million pounds. The government isn't willing to pay, afraid that the money will be used to buy new weapons and explosives, and decides not to give in. The kidnappers are furious and decide to shoot the horse, to cut of its head, to bury it on the farm and to send the head to an important news paper as proof of what they have done. But they haven't thought of one person. An orphan boy who works at the farm and who loves horses, decides to save Shergar by fleeing with him into the countryside where the IRA and the police hopefully will not find him...
Many people really seem to hate this movie, but I must say that I quite liked it. Was it an excellent movie then? No, definitely not. It was sometimes a bit too unbelievable and predictable, especially at the end, but overall the quality is OK. Take for instance the story of the movie. Let's forget about the fact that this was based on true events, but with a large fictional part added to it. If you see it as an entirely new story (like I did), then this is quite believable and original. I liked the idea of the IRA kidnapping a horse, a boy who takes care of it and tries to save it,... Also OK was the acting, although I can't say that it ever exceeded the average TV-movie standards, which isn't even that surprising if you know that many of the actors don't have any experience or have played in this kind of movies more often than in normal cinema productions. But like I already said, this is far from a perfect movie. Especially the ending wasn't good. I still want to forget about the fact that the boy should have turned himself in by going to the police and admitting that he tried to save the horse, instead of running for them. But what I really didn't buy was the corny ending. I really wonder if Dennis C. Lewiston couldn't come up with anything better than what he did now?
I guess the fact that I don't know anything about the actual events made it possible for me to forget about the fact that this movie, even though based on real events, is purely fictional. When I started watching this movie, I didn't know anything about Shergar and its kidnapping, let alone that I would have seen the difference between what was real and what was fictional. It's not the best movie ever, but I liked the biggest part of it. That's why I give it a 7/10.
