Extraordinary Film About Extraordinary Horse!

Rating: Null/10 (3 August 2003)

This is a slowly-paced, but grand tale of the 'washed-up' horse that became a source of inspiration to America during the Depression. It is, more importantly, the story of three men, who, through their involvement with the horse, find meaning in tragedy-filled lives.
The jockey, Red Pollard, sensitively played by Tobey Maguire, was 'sold' to a horse owner as a teen, as his family lost everything and was reduced to a migratory life. Hot-tempered, Pollard turns to prizefighting (getting beaten so badly that he loses sight in his right eye), and riding, to make ends meet.
The trainer, Tom Smith (played by the always wonderful Oscar-winner Chris Cooper), loses his job in a Wild West show with the Depression, and is considered a crazy old man; he is a horse whisperer, one of the unique breed of people who CAN actually talk to horses, and heal them.
The owner, Charles Howard (Jeff Bridges, who should FINALLY get his Oscar with this role), starts off as a Preston Tucker-like entrepreneur with an expanding car dealership, a loving wife, and an adoring son...then his son dies, and his wife has a breakdown and divorces him, leaving him dazed and crushed, emotionally. Finding happiness with a beautiful, understanding new wife (Elizabeth Banks), who suggests buying a horse, Howard first hires Smith (finding in him a kindred spirit), and Smith chooses the undersized, physically abused, temperamental Seabiscuit as the horse to buy (for nearly nothing; nobody gave the broken-down horse a chance). In a beautiful scene, Smith sees Seabiscuit fighting it's handlers, as Pollard fights a mob of angry stableboys, and realizes the two were 'meant' to be together. Howard 'adopts' young Pollard as his jockey, and the legend begins...
The film has two climaxes, which dilutes their impact, somewhat, but is absolutely necessary, as each actually happened. First is the running battle to get a match race between the 'little horse that could' and the 'Horse of the Ages', the gigantic stallion and Triple Crown winner, War Admiral. The Admiral's owner, Samuel Riddle, played by veteran actor Eddie Jones, does not want his never-beaten champion to race the tiny horse he considers a sideshow freak, and to have the press turn the contest into a 'David and Goliath'-style headline. Public pressure finally gets him to concede, but he demands that the race be held at the Admiral's home track of Pimlico, three thousand miles away from Seabiscuit. Howard agrees, but then tragedy strikes; Red Pollard, in a freak track accident, has his leg crushed, and is told he will never race again. Another jockey rides Seabiscuit, in what would go down as the greatest match race in history (need I say who won?)
In the next regular race, Seabiscuit's ligaments in one leg exploded, and he collapsed on the track. Despite pressure from the track vet, Smith refused to have the horse put down, and the horse joins Pollard in being 'put out to pasture'. But neither horse nor rider are ready to quit yet, and a miracle is about to happen, which is the basis for the second climax!
The cast is uniformly excellent (watch for William H. Macy's very funny turn as a radio race announcer), and the final race for Seabiscuit actually had me in tears, and the theater audience applauding, things that seldom happen during movies these days! That the story is true makes it even more meaningful, and should serve as a lesson to anyone who thinks that disabilities means giving up hope. As both horse and jockey prove, the heart of champions can never be vanquished.
SEABISCUIT is a champion!