Hollywood Soap Opera

Rating: Null/10 (22 June 2004)

I don't know what Hollywood has against Tom Smith, the highly talented trainer of Seabiscuit, but he has been both ignored and slandered in two movies about that remarkable horse (The Story of Seabiscuit 1949 and Seabiscuit 2003). In The Story of Seabiscuit, Barry Fitzgerald replaced him with an Irishman, whose daughter (played by a mature Shirley Temple) believed in 'the little people' (ugh!). In Seabiscuit, Smith was reduced to a character who said little and frowned a lot, and who added very little to the picture. In the movie's crucial scenes, when Seabiscuit was recuperating from a ruptured tendon in his right foreleg, Smith was absent. This wasn't one of Chris Cooper's memorable roles. For the record, Seabiscuit's success in racing and recuperation from a potentially career ending injury was attributable to Smith and not to jockey Red Pollard, as depicted in the movie. In reality, Pollard took orders from Smith about how to ride the Biscuit, and he rode Seabiscuit in grand style, but he wasn't the loose cannon and miracle worker as portrayed by Tobey Maguire. In the movie, Pollard blew a race at the finish line and blamed it on blindness in his right eye. The real-life Pollard blew the race also, but he never revealed his handicap to anyone as long as he raced because he knew his career would be over. A blind jockey is a danger to himself, to the other jockeys and to the horses. The real Charles Howard would never have allowed Pollard to continue to race if he had known that Pollard was blind. In the movie, Pollard was injured while exercising a horse, and the doctor was concerned that he would never walk again. In truth, Pollard was injured much worse. The doctors were afraid that he wouldn't live because of a crushed chest and other fractures. He and Seabiscuit experienced remarkable recoveries; Pollard because of the love and care of his nurse (whom he later married), and Seabiscuit because of Smith's knowledge and love of horses. While the match race between Seabiscuit and War Admiral was exciting, if you want to see the actual race, see The Story of Seabiscuit. George Wolf, the jockey who rode Seabiscuit during that race was believed by many to be the greatest jockey of his time. He rode Seabiscuit several times while Pollard was recuperating. The scene where Seabiscuit reacts to Pollard after they both were disabled is Hollywood at its worst. Seabiscuit loved to race; he didn't care who was aboard when the gates opened. After their deaths, bronze statues of both Seabiscuit and Wolf were dedicated at Santa Anita Race Track. Laura Hillenbrand, the author of the wonderful book on which Seabiscuit is based, is listed as the movie's technical adviser. I wonder how she feels about the soap opera they made of her masterpiece.