TOPIC Does Disney's Hidalgo really tell the ''true story'' of cowboy Frank T. Hopkins (Viggo Mortensen, left) and his scrappy steed's 3,000-mile race across the Arabian Desert in 1890? Or is the legend a load of hay?
CuChillaine O'Reilly, cofounder of the Long Riders' Guild: ''It is fantasy, pure and simple. Hopkins plundered history on an extraordinary scale. The hostile terrain was not crossed until 1931, and then only by the use of camels.''
John Fusco, Hidalgo screenwriter: ''Extreme endurance racing at that time was so extreme that it was illegal. Even Hopkins said in one of his essays that these races were done on the q.t. I mean, races like these were more Fight Club than Kentucky Derby.''
