Seabiscuit was arguably the greatest racehorse America has produced and he captured the affection of a country that in the 1930’s was suffering from the effects of the Great Depression. The 2003 movie directed by Gary Ross and based upon the 2001 book Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand, tells the story of the horse and the era he ran in.
Hillenbrand is a great practitioner of narrative non-fiction and she took her readers right into the events of the great horse's career and life, events like the great Match Race of 1938 against War Admiral and the difficult times horseracing and the country went through during the depression. Ross made Seabiscuit from the book and it was known by many viewers and so he had to pay close attention to the fact that he was telling a story his audience already had exposure to.
"If I had done the film as the book was written it would have made about a 7-hour movie," he said after the film was released. "So the challenge is: how do you preserve the movie that everyone has in their heads and the story that everyone loves so much?"
Seabiscuit Through His Early Years and on to Horse Racing Stardom
What the director, who wrote the screenplay, did was move in a linear manner through the horse's early life under his first owner then the sale to Charles Howard and the beginnings of greatness and beyond. Unhappily some scenes that tell us about the epoch the horse ran in do not jell with scenes that deal with the horse and his handlers that they sit between. However like the book the film manages to give us a compelling sense of the 1930's.
The story of Seabiscuit does not always build drama and perhaps out of fear of losing those who'd read the book Ross does not make any significant changes to it. The film seems over, for example, when Toby Maguire, who does a fine job of playing Canadian jockey Red Pollard, is hurt and out of necessity is replaced and the horse races without him. But the film lunges forward another 30 minutes with material that is not dramatic and does not add significantly to the overall story.
Actors Toby Maguire, Chris Cooper and Jeff Bridges of Seabiscuit
In addition to the charismatic and intense Maguire there are other strong performances. In particular the unheralded but always compelling Chris Cooper is wonderful as gruff trainer Tom Smith, understated with great integrity. Jeff Bridges does not have a great deal of room to shine playing the horse's owner, Howard, but turns in a credible performance.
A flaw is the scenes of extended dialogue between jockeys during races. In a real race there's no talking between jockeys as they ride, a word or two shouted out perhaps but riding a thoroughbred race horse is dangerous and physically demanding and jockeys don't converse. Asking us to suspend disbelief for such an obvious falsehood marred a film that otherwise created an authentic world of the racetrack.
Horse Seabiscuit, Racetrack and America Make for Strong Film
Regardless, Seabiscuit is a wonderful story about a great horse in a difficult time that managed to go as far as he did against all odds. The milieu of the racetrack is fascinating and the 1930's were an interesting and a dramatic time in American and world history and well depicted here. It is easy to see why Ross wanted to marry the the story of the horse and the story of the time in this film.
His having done so makes the movie worth seeing.
Related story on Suite 101:
How to Train a Thoroughbred Race Horse
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