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| Seabiscuit |
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  (8/10)
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Runtime: 135 |
| Public Rating: 6.34 (251 votes) |
Director: Gary Ross |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Drama |
Year: 2003 |
| Writer(s): Gary Ross |
| Distributor: Universal/Dreamworks |
| Reviewed by: Greg C. |
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I’ll be honest: I was very surprised by Seabiscuit. Not because I wasn’t looking forward to seeing it, or that I thought it wouldn’t be a good film; but it just never struck me as a film that would be released in the summer time. Normally, these underdog-overcoming adversity intrigue me, but Seabiscuit is kinda different, in a sense. It becomes more than just the story of a beat down horse who came from being two steps from the glue factory, to one of the most well-known horses in the world. It becomes more than just the story of the trio of down-on-their-luck men who found it in themselves to take a chance and find the strength in each other to overcome bigger odds than the Cubs winning the World Series. The film becomes less about this and more a representation of what America was going through during the time of Seabiscuit’s reign as champion, the Great Depression.
Like America, Seabiscuit was, at first glance, a mess. There seemed to be very little going for the horse: the colt of a majestic race horse, Seabiscuit appeared right from the start to have gotten the shallow end of the gene pool, and was shuffled from owner to owner, most of whom weren’t the nicest people in the world.
At the same time, the Depression was affecting everyone in the country, and the effect is represented by the three leads-- Chris Cooper, who plays Tom Smith, a horse trainer who lives the life of a cowboy out west until everything he had gets pulled out from under him. He’s reduced from roping horses and sleeping under the stars to trying to find work and sleeping in a boxcar. Johnny “Red” Pollard (Tobey Maguire) was only 16 when the Depression hit, and was abandoned by his parents, thinking that the boy could fend for himself. Red wanted nothing more than to be a jockey, but by the time he was grown he was too tall to be taken seriously. Charles Howard, a wealthy owner of a car dealership, has managed to keep his finances afloat after the crash, but in turn lost his son in a car accident and subsequently his wife. All three men are beaten, but not broken, and it is in Seabiscuit that the three of them find each other and, like the nation, help each other in finding what it was that would make them great.
Simply told as an underdog story, Seabiscuit is wonderful to behold, but instead writer/director Gary Ross decided to show us more than just the incredible true story of overcoming odds. That kind of thing has been done for decades, from National Velvet to Men of Honor. That would have made for a good tale, but Ross wanted more than just a true story; he wanted a true *American* story, one that is patriotic but not flag-waving; inspiring but not sentimental.
The acting is topnotch-- Ross sought out character actors, not big names. Tobey Maguire is the biggest name of the bunch, but other than "Spider-Man", he has yet to fully become part of the sensationalized mainstream. Chris Cooper, playing an entirely different creature from his Oscar-winning role as the fast-talking nut bag in "Adaptation" last year, is soft-spoken and charming as a true cowboy who is the first to see the potential in Seabiscuit. Jeff Bridges (an actor that I love to watch but for the life of me can't discern between him and Jeff Daniels-- I mean, they look alike, they sound alike, is there any photographic proof of them in the same room together?) plays Charles Howard as a driven man-- one who has had a lot of hardship, but still believes that there is still something good and worth fighting for. He's a salesman at heart, and his big and sometimes long-winded speeches to the press showcases this fact, but Bridges plays him with an energy that's barely contained. Maguire turns in an admirable job, shedding his nearly iconic turn in last year's Spider-Man and determined to prove that he can make it without the tights, and for his first truly adult role, he proves it in spades. Pollard is an angry, embittered young man, whose violent temper makes him the perfect match to tame the equally rowdy Seabiscuit.
That being said, the movie isn't perfect. It has strong performances and a great script and story, but some elements just didn’t work in the mix.
The music is serviceable to the plot but lacks any real sort of consistent theme or tone, going from speedy fiddles to sweeping orchestral with very little to identify the two together (there’s even one piece during a race that sounded almost like a Moby song). It’s not distracting, but it’s not exactly memorable either. Another thing that got on my nerves was the constant narrations throughout the film-- while they were probably just driving home the point that the film is just as much about the Depression as it is about the horse, we don’t need to stop every twenty minutes for another montage of photos, saying how rotten life was back then. It feels very PBS-movie-of-the-week when it does that (not helped by the fact that the guy who does the narration for PBS does the narration here), and it detracts from the overall feel of the film. However, about halfway through the narration's for the most part cease or don’t become as much of an annoyance, and the true plot of the movie races home and hits nice and square. This is a feel-good movie, no doubt about it, but it’s not the warm fuzzy kind. There’s no moments where the characters share what they’ve learned, or smile fondly in a sign of brotherly platonic love, no wrapped up sweet Hollywood ending, either.
Much is being said about the ending of the film, saying it’s obviously a tacked-on Hollywood ending, but believe it or not, Seabiscuit and Red Pollard both overcame broken legs to race in the Santa Anita Handicap, and yes, they did win. So does this movie.
Rated PG-13 for strong language and some violence.
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