Great docudrama.

Rating: 8/10 (23 July 2003)

As a docudrama, Seabiscuit plays wonderfully. Here are reenactments of the most important moments of the horse and the people who loved him. As a piece of cinema it lacks slightly. It's interesting and even compelling at times, but never gripping nor engrossing. You could watch the same thing on the History Channel and still be just as entertained, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
It's the story of the rise and fall and rise again of a race horse that no one cared about until Charles Howard (Jeff Bridges) takes a chance with not only the horse, but a trainer most think is crazy (Chris Cooper) and a jockey who is a down-and-out loser (Tobey Maguire). The result is history as the film spells out all too well.
Although today's economy is not as bad as it was during the early 1900's, it's still an interesting parallel that helps the film. You know the pain and anguish they are going through and so start to root for them despite knowing that everything will turn out all right in end. How else could the best-known underdog story of that generation turn out any other way?