Hidalgo - from Myth to Movie

sadly, it appears that the upcoming movie Hidalgo is even more historically inaccurate than the usual disney revisionism.

Sadly, it enjoys some popular support from sloppy writers and secondary sources.

I did a bit of research myself, and some of the particulars seem very well supported. There is no other evidence for the race described as 'the ocean of fire' ever having been run in Yemen, and the former Sultan of Yemen is actually quoted in an upcoming book as saying such a race never existed, and never would have been supported culturally in the first place.

Cody's Wild West Show also has no record of Frank Hopkins employment. No record of any his performances exist as first hand sources.

It seems Frank Hopkin's claims of stardom are much the same as Frank Dux's more recent claims of far off conquest. The problem being that now we can simply ask the people who live there if such events actually occured. (Frank Dux's claims of foreign triumph are immortalized in the movie Bloodsport, which largely replicates unexamined his own publicity. No record of a "Kumite" like the one he describes exists, and no external sources can be referenced.)

it still looks like a good movie though. I hope that Disney stops promoting it as based on a true story.