Seabiscuit is a real treat

Rating: 9/10 (15 February 2005)

One thing is certain: Martin Scorsese could never have directed Seabiscuit! Scorsese would have been absolutely lost, trying to direct a biopic about decent, genuinely likable characters. That is certainly part of Seabiscuit's magic.
Another ingredient is the classic American sports movie motif of never giving up, rolling with the punches and regaining self-respect. When that motif is extended and given the much broader and more poignant association with the nation as a whole, grappling with the Great Depression, one really has a story that grabs and holds the audience.
Seabiscuit is a joy to watch for several reasons. In addition to those already alluded to, the film is also exquisitely shot and edited and extremely well-acted. It is also very historically accurate.
While director Gary Ross and his cohort on the DVD commentary stress that the protagonists are all flawed, contrary to today's popular Hollywood assembly line style, they are still very decent, likable people. I find it very difficult to avoid using the term 'likeable' over and over in recounting the film and its characters.
Start with Charles Howard. Jeff Bridges' portrayal of the self-made auto magnate, turned horse owner is brilliant. He captures all the nuances as Howard fights his way up in true Horatio Alger style, then finds his success empty after his son is killed and his marriage disintegrates. Ross, in his commentary, talks considerably about Howard healing himself as he reaches out to help others in the story.
Helping HIM heal is Marcella (Elizabeth Banks), a young beauty, but also an extremely kind, determined woman. I absolutely fell in love with Banks as Mrs. Howard  and considering how highly I regard Howard, I felt good seeing him marry her.
Tobey Maguire is brilliant as jockey Johnnie 'Red' Pollard, a down-on-his-luck jockey who has to scrap as a boxer to get by and Chris Cooper is wonderful as iconoclastic trainer Tom Smith. Real-life jockey Gary Stephens, meanwhile, adds realism and a surprisingly natural stage presence as legendary jockey George Woolf.
Flawed antagonists? Certainly. Howard finds that his faith in technology and corporate America have left him alone and shaken. Maguire, hurting over the breakup of his family as a youth and his hard knock life, is too proud to accept help at first and has a hair-trigger temper. Smith is a man whose day has passed and one who doesn't connect with others like Howard does. Of course Seabiscuit himself fits this mold.
Yet their flaws only make them more real. Together, as Ross notes on the commentary, these unlikely partners help heal each other and the broken down racehorse. Scorsese would be lost with these characters.
The film tells the consummate American success story. Just glancing at titles of message board entries, I see that many are quick to pick up on this and dis the film for it. I suppose for those who dislike America, capitalism and/or underdog stories, the film WOULD be a bit disagreeable. Howard, apparently true to his real-life persona, is a kind, caring, fatherly figure of a capitalist. True, not all US business moguls were gold-hearted Daddy Warbucks', but Howard typified the best of this breed. He really believed in the American success story after arriving in San Francisco with twenty-one cents to his name.
Promoting Seabiscuit was more an act of spreading his personal gospel of determination and self-worth to a beleaguered country than it was a money-making or ego-enhancing venture.
While many readersboth American and foreignmay not want to hear this, this was a story that COULD only have happened in America. And, as we know, it really DID happen there.