Good but should have been better

Rating: Null/10 (28 July 2003)

I saw this film based on the great trailer and earlier in the year I saw the PBS documentary so I this was one movie I really waited to see.
I was kind of disappointed.
I sat there watching the movie and the problems were obvious. Gary Ross, the director, tried to touch all the bases but in doing so ended up with only a good movie. He had the classic Hollywood dream of a the little guy beating the odds, people who get a second chance, and how Seabiscuit was a great symbol and metaphor for the times. Those elements were there but in trying to cram the whole story into the 2 hour plus running time, Ross didn't execute it well.
The photography was excellent. The racing scenes were great, but the overall film missed for me.
If I were making the movie I would condense as much as possible the human character's back story. I really didn't need to see the scene of Tom Smith (Chris Cooper) catching the wild horse and sleeping under the stars at the beginning of the movie. A much better scene was when Charles Howard (Jeff Bridges) first sees Smith in Mexico. There were quite a bit of stuffing in the beginning that added nothing to the story or to the true story.
The David McCullough narration at the very beginning was a nice intro but after that it took away from the flow of the film and in fact would mislead those who don't know the real true story. The black and white montages also seemed to hit one over the head about how bad the economy was. It wasn't important to have those points explained explicitly. It should have come from what was filmed and through the characters. This was suppose to be an entertainment film not a documentary.
We also are mislead by the War Admiral match race. It is built up through a good portion of the film but then we learn that isn't the end as it should be. We get a large portion of the rest of the story. For a documentary that is great but for a dramatic film it was anti-climatic.
Ross could have had a great film if he had picked the scenes he filmed with the tried and true dramatic arc that make films entertainment. I would have ended the film with the race against War Admiral.
My "Seabiscuit" would have started with Howard going to Mexico and meeting Smith. Then Seabiscuit is purchased and all the problems with that. Then Smith sees Red and gets him to be the jockey for the horse and the final part of the film would be the match race.