My kingdom for the horse

Rating: 8/10 (5 August 2003)

Seabiscuit is a "feel good" movie. Great pains have been made to adapt the book to the screen. Gary Ross proves he has what it takes to make the translation, as the final product is very good, indeed!
This is a story of an underdog becoming a surprise winner, which is a theme that runs underneath a lot of American films. Seabiscuit is rescued from being a mediocre horse into the winner of very important races.
It also reflects on an era of Americana when the Great Depression hit the country. Seabiscuit is some sort of paradox of how can losers become winners because there is a great team behind it to make it come true.
Being this a historic picture, it has been given a great treatment by the people behind the film. Jeff Bridges, a great, if somewhat under estimated film actor, is the personification of Charles Howard, the self made millionaire who is instrumental in buying a has been horse and turning it to Tom Smith, played with conviction by Chris Cooper, to make it a champion and a winner in the racing circuit.
Toby Maguire, as Red Pollard, Seabiscuit's jockey, is very credible as the man whose life has dealt him a bad hand, but encounters his true calling as the person who can lead Seabiscuit to fame.
The production has a 30s look that is very well captured. The costumes, the clothes, even the race tracks ring true and that's the beauty of this film. One really believes in what is going on, which, by the way, it very authentically recreated in the screen by the winning production staff led by Gary Ross.