Seabiscuit

 Seabiscuit 2003

• Director: Gary Ross
• Seen by this director: Hunger Games, Pleasantville
• Based on the book by Laura Hillenbrand
• Cast: Tobey Maguire, Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper, Elizabeth Banks, William H Macy
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Tobey Maguire – The Great Gatsby, Wonder Boys, The Cider House Rules, Pleasantville, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Ice Storm
• Jeff Bridges – True Grit, The Big Lebowski, The Fabulous Baker Boys, The Last Picture Show
• Chris Cooper – August Osage County, The Tempest, Remember Me, American Beauty, A Time to Kill
• Elizabeth Banks – The Hunger Games, Pitch Perfect, Catch Me If You Can
• William H Macy – Room, Happy Texas, Pleasantville, Fargo, Benny & Joon
• Why?  I like horses
• Seen: 4 March 2022

Charles Howard (Bridges) is a wealthy go-getter car salesman. Red Pollard (Maguire) grows up in a loving poetry-reading family who loses its fortune in the ’29 Crash, and who has a way with horses. Tom Smith (Cooper) is an eccentric loner horse trainer. It’s a long slow build-up but eventually fate and circumstance bring them together.

Enter, after nearly an hour, Seabiscuit, a small horse who has been abused and rejected by trainers until Tom sees his worth. He talks Charles into buying him and Red into riding him. The saga begins.

Seabiscuit becomes the darling of the working class. An underdog who wins. And wins. And wins.

Two problems. Only one woman and one black, both token characters with nothing for the actors to work with. And it’s too long.

The horses, of course, are beautiful. It’s a nice story, a nice film. But I don’t love it. 

3* of 5