Its Seabiscuit By Four Lengths

Rating: 9/10 (24 December 2003)

The life of a horse named Seabiscuit will be forever cherished as an "underdog" that overcame great odds. A runt of a horse that was immediately label as "unfit" to be a great racing horse. His Grandfather was the legendary "Man-O-War." What makes this a great film is not so much the action on the track but that sometimes greatness becomes reality when someone "either horse or human" is given a second chance. That is the spirit behind this masterpiece. Jeff Bridges as Charles Howard is the owner that was a great salesman that made thousands of dollars selling cars until the "Great Depression" destroyed the car market for a while. Then Howard's son dies in an automobile accident that literally destroys his family's unity to stay together and Howard ends up single and alone in Mexico. Elizabeth Banks is Marcela, a woman that ends up marrying Howard and giving him hope that there is a future again. Howard decides to enter the horse business and needs a trainer. He spots a lonely figure Tom Smith "Chris Cooper" doctoring and caring for a horse. Everyone says that Smith is washed up but Howard knows what being "down on his luck is" so he gives this man Smith a second chance. A horse is needed to head the new stables but where? Smith in the fog/darkness sees a broken down horse with a limp yet has that little "spark" in his eyes that only a man that has been "down in life" can see. Smith decides that Seabiscuit will be that horse. Smith needs a jockey and notices a thin but tall man fighting with four others. Just maybe that meanness and spirit in this man will fit into this group of losers seeking a second chance. Tobey Maguire is that jockey, a man abandoned by his parents, blind in one eye and a bad temper begging track people for work. This group forms a close knit brigade that touches the hearts of millions of people battling the Great Depression for that second chance. If you have felt down and out? Have been unemployed? Have felt the spectre of death? Have been "out of luck?" Then this gem of a film is for you.