Seabiscuit Review
by Ronald O. Christian (ronc AT europa DOT com)September 2nd, 2003
Seabiscuit (2003)
Screenplay and direction by Gary Ross
Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper, Tobey Maguire, William H. Macy Five stars
My wife is the sports nut in the family. Although she'll watch anything, her passions are football (I am officially a football widower) and horse racing. I'm utterly ambivalent to sports. I will sometimes pause to watch women's professional figure skating but otherwise I am completely uninterested.
Being that wife's favorite movie is National Velvet (1944), it was a safe bet that she'd be a fan of Seabiscuit. What surprised me was that my daughter (10) and I (the anti-sports-nut) would enjoy it as well.
Daughter Shannon didn't want to see a film about a dumb horse when "Freaky Friday" was in theaters, but it's not her money, and it was wife's turn to pick. We tried to see Seabiscuit last weekend but I apparently screwed up the time (or Fandango was wrong, which I choose to believe) and we ended up, to our eternal regret, seeing The Medallion instead. But we caught up with Seabiscuit Saturday, and it was worth the wait. During the obligatory potty break, Shannon said "I really like this movie" which is high praise, for her.
Frankly, this is one of those films that has "box office failure" written all over it. It's too long. It doesn't have Keanu Reeves or Nicole Kidman. (The cast is made up of character actors like William H. Macy and Chris Cooper.) It's a period melodrama. There are no explosions. The plot is too complicated. There are loose ends that are never tied up, just like, you know, real life. And worst of all, it's a pseudo-documentary. Oscar bait, perhaps, but lucky to make back it's expenses.before it hits DVD.
I'm hoping that last proves untrue. Seabiscuit is not a "blockbuster", it's just a remarkably good film. It's not a simplistic "Rocky" type film, but a hard look at America during the Great Depression and the small part a horse and a collection of emotionally troubled humans played in it. It departs from other "docudramas" in insisting on reporting the truth, not the legend. "No stockbrokers committed suicide on Black Monday. But over time the legend would grow that they did."
The film doesn't build up to one single race, as you would expect of a Hollywood movie about a sports figure, but rather tells the story of how the owner stumbled upon a method to promote his horse that truly struck a chord with America during the Great Depression -- that of the small guy who's been kicked around but refuses to quit, that only needs a second chance to come roaring back.
The film has a broad focus (the horse doesn't even show up for the first half hour), and (this is a shocker...) is not excessively maudlin. The major scenes in the previews which you might have thought were from the end of the film are actually no later than the middle. The film is not predictable. I kept waiting for a certain event to occur (dramatic license required it) but it never did. The major set-piece in the third reel does not occur as expected. It ends unexpectedly. In other words, this is not your standard Hollywood film, and the only thing that could save it from financial ruin is good word of mouth. Luckily, it more than deserves it.
Expect Seabiscuit to be nominated for Best Picture, but unlike past contenders, it won't bore you into early retirement. Highly recommended.
Ron
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
