Very good story, but book is better, as usual

Rating: 8/10 (10 March 2004)

Good, heartwarming story. I enjoyed it a lot. But having read the book first, I missed some of the tone of the book. The book spends several chapters here and there explaining horse racing to us non-fans, and the explanations are just as fascinating as the plot. If you see this movie, read the book anyway.
The film did a nice job of moving time along without bogging down in details. We leap from "now" to "later" with a few scenes that have music only. This is not a new technique, but I thought it was very well done in this Seabiscuit.
I felt there was a slight disconnect between the close-ups of the jockeys riding and the longer shots. This was done about as well as it could be, I think, but I was always aware that the close-ups had actors who were not sitting on horses.