Just not the book!

Rating: 7/10 (9 February 2004)

Being a horse racing fan, and having read the totally engrossing book of the same name, I had high expectations for this movie. As is usually the case with lofty expectations, they weren't fulfilled. While I found Seabiscuit to be a likable movie overall, it unfortunately came up short in my mind. The character development just didn't seem to work, some of the bawdy and less-than-glamorous stuff from the book was left out for the sake of mainstreaming, and worse of all the dramatic buildup to Seabiscuit versus War Admiral wasn't so dramatic! I also feel that there was too little emphasis on the nearly career-ending injuries that took place prior to the final triumph. I guess judging the movie by comparing it to the book is unfair, but at the least I'd like to recommend that anyone who has only seen and enjoyed the movie is doing him/herself a major disservice if they do not read the book (which I read very quickly despite being a relatively slow reader).