An uplifting movie about the Great Depression, released at a time when we could use one.

Rating: Null/10 (16 August 2003)

WARNING: CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS! DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU HAVEN'T YET SEEN SEABISCUIT! SPOILERS AHEAD!
Did I mention that there are spoilers here? Don't read any more of this if you haven't seen the movie. Really. I mean it. I'm not joking around here. I'm going to be giving away major plot points like they're candy canes on Christmas Day. OK. You've been amply forewarned. Here's the first spoiler: In this movie, Seabiscuit wins most of the races you see. In fact, (MORE SPOILERS) after an early race, which he loses by a nose because (HERE'S ANOTHER SPOILER) his jockey, Red Pollard, is blind in one eye, he doesn't lose another race.
Have I spoiled it for you? I'm sorry. I tried to warn you. I promise not to give away any more Seabiscuit spoilers today. And yet I don't feel like I've spoiled anything because of the way the filmmakers have made it almost irrelevant that anyone familiar with what really happened already knows the plot of the movie. Catch Me If You Can did it (OOPS! HERE'S ANOTHER SPOILER!) by molding the story of Frank Abagnale Jr. into a story of a young man losing his identity when his family disintegrates, and his struggle to regain it by trying on a lot of different identities, before finally finding himself accidentally when the FBI man who has been dogging him shows him the way to his authentic self. In Seabiscuit, the stories of the horse, the jockey, the trainer and the owner are told as parables of redemption. The action takes place during the time of the Great Depression, and as America comes around, so do the lives of the characters in the movie, all of whom have suffered through adversity for reasons mostly unrelated to the economy. The movie's conceit is that America is coming around at least in part because of Seabiscuit's success, which gives hope to the downtrodden. Whether in real life following Seabiscuit gave people a reason to hope or people's need to hope was the reason they followed Seabiscuit, I don't know. I suspect there was a little of both going on, among the people who were aware of Seabiscuit, at least. Though the movie may like us to think that everyone in America was riveted by this equine underdog, most people are indifferent to horse racing now, and I suspect it was much the same back then. Regardless, they did a beautiful job of drawing the parallels and making a movie -- where you know the heroes are gonna win the big race  that is satisfying nevertheless.
There are lot of things in this movie to like, including good performances all around by a solid cast -- topped by Chris Cooper once again playing a believable and utterly unforgettable character, lots of period atmosphere  this is a great looking picture and a visual depiction of the depression I had not really seen in the cinema before, and a score that I didn't realize was by Randy Newman because it fits the period so perfectly. Much has been made of the groundbreaking photography of the horse races. People wonder how it was done. I don't know how it was done, but it never occurred to me to wonder because I was so caught up in the story.

PERSONAL NOTE: I like this movie for two reasons that are entirely personal. One is that I have had some vision problems in my left eye and was able to see the movie through only one eye, so I identified with Red Pollard for that reason. The other goes back a lot further. When I was 15 a carnival came to my neighborhood for the first and last time in my life. There was an empty lot where some buildings had been torn down so there was a place for a carnival to be. Town homes and a strip mall have since replaced the empty lot. They had a horse race game there that my friends and I loved to play, and did just about every day it was there. The horses in the race were named after real horses from history, including Secretariat, who had won the triple crown that very year. My friends were usually Man o' War and War Admiral. I was usually Seabiscuit. I chose him because he had a funny name. I never knew how he'd gotten that name until this movie came along. Seabiscuit's father was named Hardtack. The military ration that armies call hardtack, navies call seabiscuit.

HISTORICAL NOTE: This wasn't mentioned in the movie but War Admiral  the überhorse that was Seabiscuit's adversary  was Seabiscuit's uncle.