Corny, predictable, flat and just simply wonderful!!!

Rating: 9/10 (1 February 2008)

Yes, you read my summary right. Viewed objectively the story is like any other sports underdog story. Many lines (especially Charles Howard) are so corny you almost cannot believe it. And though the characters are brilliantly played and have nice background, they are not very deeply detailed.
But...and this is a serious but, this movie made me watch it over 20 times now, 5 times in the cinema alone. Why is that?
My guess is its beauty. This movie reminds me in its slow pace and wonderful scenery of some Robert Redford or Clint Eastwood movies. The pace really brings out the shots and thus even contains the corny dialogs in a sense where you can hear them and they fit.
Then there is, almost as a contrapunction, the fast and wonderfully shot race scenes.
Another reason may be the acting. I would not say that Bridges or Maguire or Cooper deliver performances never to be topped, but they are their characters and you believe in them. That is what an actor should do. Apart from the three leads I always was enraptured by Elizabeth Banks, who fills her role with only a few lines to say. And a surprise for me was to hear that Gary Stevens, the actor of George Wolfe, wasn't an actor at all but a professional jockey. He delivers a great performance for an amateur.
Then there is the nice collage of still photographs of the depression era overlaying the narration by McCullough, which is just great. m
All in all this is one of the movies of my collection that will be watched over and over again.