Randall Wallace: The Passion of the Race Track

I sat down with Randall Wallace in Washington DC and, over a plate of crispy calamari, discussed Secretariat, Braveheart, and the role of faith in moviemaking. Wallace, a former seminary student, weighs his words carefully, talks gently, and quotes liberally from other thinkers.

You grew up around Virginia, right? Did you have any connection with the world of horses, horse racing?

Not at all. I considered it sort of a rich person’s sport and also that it was related to gambling and I didn’t do either and sort of didn’t approve of either. I didn’t experience horse racing until I went to the Kentucky Derby the year Barbaro won. [ed note:2006] It was a great experience for me. Not just to watch the race but to see everybody stand up and sing “My Old Kentucky Home.”

That was in the movie.

Yeah. It was. For that very reason I found it moving to see a hundred thousand people celebrating something that was unique to them and good and pure. I didn’t know anything about Penny. I’d heard of Secretariat, of course, but I hadn’t seen any of his races.

My real passion for this was that it was a story that had the potential to celebrate what I think of as the eternal values. So many stories have heart, and this once certainly did. But I also want to find the soul of the story, what gives it an emotional base. My father used to say people we will remember only a little bit of what you say and a slight bit more of what you do but all their lives they’ll remember how you feel. And I look for a story that makes me feel something. And I think if it does make me feel something real, it will allow the audience to connect emotionally.

So what is the soul of the story?

The soul of this story is why Penny is doing what she did. Additionally, she was trying to find herself. She didn’t know for sure what her calling really was, where her true self lay. She wanted to be the best wife and mother she could possibly be. She wanted to be the best daughter she could possibly be. But when her mother died and the responsibilities began to be thrust upon her, there was a task in front of her. What her hand found to do, she did. As she began to do it, people resisted her and told her she should do it their way and not the way that felt right to her, the more her true spirit rose up. She discovered that defining part of herself.

Did you get to spend much time with her?

Not a great deal. [William Nack], who wrote the book, spent a lot of time with her.

She told me something that was really striking. She said that after she had seen the movie, she hadn’t realized how difficult her journey had been until she had seen the movie. When she recognized that it had been that hard, I gave her an analogy. I once competed in martial arts and I was in a tournament in college. I fought seven or eight matches. The final match I walked off and I thought no one had hit me the entire time. When I got in the locker room, I opened up my uniform and I was covered in welts. I had many encounters with the kicks and fists of my opponents. But you don’t allow yourself to feel that way in battle. Penny had had a much lonelier journey than she realized until later in life.

Yes. And I’d love to address that. There have been moments in which I’ve not wanted anybody to believe I was trying to convince them to think the way I think. I don’t trust the way I think. What I believe is not about what I understand, in fact it’s the complete opposite. I don’t understand love at all. I don’t understand how it’s created. I don’t understand the turning point where someone’s life changes. But I know those changes occur. When I was in seminary, I came across, I believe it was Karl Barth, who said religion is man’s way to god and it’s always erroneous, revelation is god’s way to people and it’s always perfect. I don’t want people to judge me because I pray. I want them to judge me for what I pray. I think my own personal doctrine, whatever it is, and it changes, is nonsense. C.S. Lewis says, when we get to heaven, those of us who go, and I’m not don’t know that C.S. Lewis was ever sure he would go, I’m sure he was unsure, those who go to heaven will all be surprised. It won’t be that some are right and can say ah I was right. Everybody will be surprised. I love that assertion.

Because belief is a stronger word than know. Penny could not know that Secretariat was going to succeed. She could not know that she wasn’t going to lose her own money and that of everyone who had trusted her. She could not know that the decisions in training were going to be successful. She believed it. And the acting on the belief is what matters.

I am not looking to argue with somebody’s understanding of God. I think that’s theirs, it’s their journey to walk. Where I think I would fail as a Christian is if I am not actively trying to love them. I think love is an active word. I don’t think it’s a passive concept or a spiritual state. C.S. Lewis also said the boy who comes home from college and announces he’s an atheist may be closer to god than he’s ever been. Course C.S. Lewis called himself an atheist for most of his life. So the wonderful thing to me that’s so universal, I think, what this movie celebrates, I want to go beyond my culture and my understanding. I want the movie to say that courage matters and hope prevails and love works and to celebrate these things. John Wesley said let’s not argue if our hands are together. If our hearts are together, let’s join hands.

What are the common themes, common things that attracted you between Secretariat and Braveheart, and your other films?

I’ve thought about this a lot and I have different answers for different times. I want a story that’s captivating and exciting. One of the things I loved about Secretariat, it was emotionally involving and exciting. And one of the things I loved is that it was less restrictive to audience than my other movies. I wouldn’t let my own son, my youngest son, who was not very old when Braveheart came out, I wouldn’t let him see the movie until he was old enough to see it as an adult, when he was in his teens. For one thing, I didn’t want him to think he had seen it because he’d watched it without knowing enough to understand what it was that was happening.

With a story like Braveheart, and Secretariat, I’m looking for the moment when the characters find what it is that matters to them, ultimately what they hold as sacred, where the line gets drawn. And that’s exciting and dramatic and I think it’s resonant. No matter what our field, we have the constant danger of pride and of having contempt for other people. In Hollywood all the time, you can see the filmmaker when they thought their audience was stupid, or they thought their audience was base. “Unless we have this scene, they won’t like it. They’ll walk out.” It’s a tiny difference, but an enormous difference, in thinking “What’s the best way to tell this story?” That’s different than thinking “I don’t really trust the audience I’m talking to.” I believe the audience is looking for those moments that make their heart sing. I think they want to stand up and go “Yeah!”

Without cynicism.

That’s right. We live in a world in which faith, and I don’t mean necessarily the kind of dogmatic faith, but the belief that life can be better than even we imagined it could be. Which of course is what Secretariat is, because he could do something that no one else thought was possible because it hadn’t been done before by any other horse and Penny was doing something no other woman had ever done.

Our world is struggling from a loss of soul. America is all heart. America has such a fabulous heart. We as a nation, for all the problems we have, the welcoming, the generosity of the American people…I know it could be better, but if we compare it with what happens in the rest of the world, it’s a stunning full of heart county. But we also need a sense of soul, a sense of why we were doing things. And that why has to be we were made to love each other. That to me is the essence of my faith. That the reason we were created is to love each other. And only in loving each other can we complete the circuit with who made us, who made us for that reason.

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