Last month, it was somewhat fascinating to watch Randall Wallace’s “Secretariat” a day after Anton Corbijn’s “The American.” There is no comparison to draw between the two, of course, but if the latter is the ultimate “show, don’t tell” film, then the former is most certainly the ultimate “tell, don’t show” film.
Mike Rich’s screenplay (which was “suggested” by William Nack’s book “Secretariat: The Making of a Champion,” the closing titles tell us — I don’t know if that makes it original or adapted) is soaked in the most viscous sentiment you could imagine, and perhaps as much as you’d expect from the sampling of materials put out thus far. But while that might be forgivable given the feel-good nature of the narrative, the repetition of that sentiment is what kills it. My guess is director Wallace couldn’t settle on which blatant example of force-fed symbolism or thematic showmanship to trim from the potent mixture, so he just kept it all.