The First Saturday in May

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Audience Member I don't really remember much about this film. But knowing that I very enjoyed it, I wanted to give it a good grade. Sure it wasn't perfect, But it still was pretty intresting. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/26/23 Full Review walter m "The First Saturday in May" is a moderately interesting documentary that follows six horses and their trainers on the path towards the Holy Grail of racing, The Kentucky Derby. But since this was 2006 and the year of Barbaro, there were no happy endings that year. While 20 horses may seem like a lot for a race(it probably is), that is nothing compared to the amount of horses out there whose owners and trainers dream of competing at the top level. However, with the movie's eyes on the prize, there is little new insight into horse racing, outside of it being a family business, more or less.(By comparison, I learned more from an episode of "The Glades.") Admittedly, I am kicking myself for not visiting Churchill Downs when I had the chance several years back. And there are some nice stories like Dan Hendricks, one of the trainers, who was paralyzed from the chest down in an accident but continues to work and even rides occasionally. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member So before watching this documentary I didn't really know anything about the Kentucky Derby. I watched about the first half really interested but then it just moved so slowly that I couldn't stay awake. I'm not really one to fall asleep during movies, but there was just not enough going on to keep my attention. I'm not a huge fan of documentaries in general, but this is the first one where I didn't really care about what happened at the end. Sorry Hennegan brothers! You just didn't win me over with this one. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/05/23 Full Review Audience Member For a person not caring so much for horse racing, I almost thought of not finishing this movie. As movie progresses, I found myself caring for some of the horses and people behind and around them. I almost choked up at the end to find short and abrupt demise of Barbaro. Having passion for something and having to live daily doing that is certainly a bless. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/03/23 Full Review Audience Member interesting look at diverse bunch of people (owners, jockeys, trainers) all chasing their dream to be in Kentucky Derby. A little sappy on Barbaro at the end but you do feel how important the Derby is and what it means to be in it Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Audience Member There is nothing inherently wrong with this movie, but it has a problem that some other movies that I can think of off the top of my head don't. In Spellbound you don't really know the characters up front, so when they follow a group of them, you are allowed to pick the one you identify with the most, and hope they win. "Word Wars" did this for Scrabble, and "Wordplay" did this for crossword puzzles. The problem in "The First Saturday in May" is that you already know who won the Kentucky Derby, so the suspense is a little limited. The people all seem to be very colorful, and i learned a lot about how a horse actually gets to the Kentucky Derby, but the I already knew the outcome. Also, the end is tacked on, as it should be, since the horse that wins gets put down after running its next race. That was all over the news, and you really couldn't make this movie without mentioning that. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/03/23 Full Review Read all reviews

The First Saturday in May

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