Seabiscuit

Plot synopsis:
The film centers on three men, Red Pollard, Charles S. Howard, and Tom Smith who come together as, respectively, the principle jockey, owner, and trainer of championship horse, Seabiscuit. The story follows the redemption of the three men as they rise from troubled times to achieve fame and success through their association with the horse. Red Pollard was the child of a wealthy family which was ruined by the Great Depression. In need of money, the family leaves Red with a horse groom. Eventually becoming a jockey, Red makes extra money through illegal boxing matches, which leave him almost blind in one eye. Charles Howard is shown as a clerk in a bicycle shop when he gets asked by a passing motorist to repair his automobile, a technology which has recently been introduced. Some years later, Howard is the largest car dealer in California and one of the Bay Area's richest men. However, his son is killed in an automobile accident while driving the family car. When Howard is unable to come out of his depression, his wife leaves him. On a trip to Mexico in order to obtain a divorce and to drown his sorrows, he meets Marcela whom he marries.Howard then runs into Tom Smith, a horse trainer who has been homeless. Seeing Smith tame an aggressive horse, Howard hires him to take care of his newly acquired stable of horses. Later, Smith tries to get a jockey to ride Seabiscuit, but the jockey is frightened off when Seabiscuit rips off a bit of his shirt. Smith then turns to see Red Pollard fighting with other stable boys and sees in them a similar temperament as the horse. Thus, he decides to make him the jockey. The film then follows the three men as they begin to race Seabiscuit. It especially focuses on their efforts to provoke a race with War Admiral, the top race horse in the country. A match race is then decided on the 1st of November at Pimlico racetrack. While they wait for the date to come around and train Seabiscuit, Pollard is asked to exercise a race horse for an old friend. While they are on the track, two men suddenly start a tractor, spooking the horse. The horse rears, and Pollard falls off and is dragged along until he crashes into a wall, fracturing his leg. When the doctor reports that he will be unable to jockey again, Red suggests that Howard get George Woolf to jockey. Red then teaches George about Seabiscuit's handling and mannerisms. Seabiscuit beats War Admiral easily because of a secret that Pollard told George Woolf, which was to hold him head to head with the other horse so he gets "a good look at the Admiral". Afterwards, Seabiscuit is entered in a race at the Santa Anita Race track under George Woolf. While he is racing he gets injured and has to stop. Red Pollard helps him to recover and get fit enough to race again. The last race is again at the Santa Anita track, and Red Pollard races him this time after putting a special self-made brace on his own leg to keep it stable. George Woolf is also racing, albeit on a different horse. When Seabiscuit drops to last place and trails the pack of horses, George Woolf trails back to be with Pollard. After a short conversation, Seabiscuit gives Pollard the signal that he is ready to go. Seabiscuit then surges towards the pack of horses and Pollard steers him through them to win the race. The movie ends with Pollard narrating "You know everyone thinks that we found this broken down horse and fixed him, but we didn't, he fixed us, everyone of us, and I guess in a way we kinda fixed each other too."

Tags: inspiring, dramatic, depressing, realism, storytelling

Review:
Some were concerned that this adaptation from Laura Hillenbrand's highly thought of novel missed too many crucial elements, others were merely touting the tired old charge of the film purely baiting Oscar {something that is levelled at every film in history about hope and second chances}, the more astute critics of the time however lauded it as the delightful and inspiring piece it is.It would be churlish of me to not agree that Seabiscuit is laced with sentiment, rookie director Gary Ross barely wastes a chance to tug the heart strings and paint an evocative sequence, but if you have got it in you to accept this true story for its base emotional point, then it is one hell of a wonderful experience.
Jeff Bridges, Tobey Maguire {waif like}, Chris Cooper, Elizabeth Banks, top American jockey Gary Stevens and a splendidly jaunty William H Macy, all can rightly feel proud of their respective work on this picture.
Goliath theme so thoroughly and effectively as `Seabiscuit' has.The story of `Seabiscuit' is actually the tale of four long shots: Charles Howard (Jeff Bridges), a wealthy self-made man and natural salesmen who's suffered both personal and financial loss through the Depression, Tom Smith (Chris Cooper), an aging horse trainer unsure of his place in the world with the ending of the frontier, Red Pollard (Tobey Maguire), a short-tempered jockey with various handicaps against him, and Seabiscuit, an undersized mustang whose been mistreated his whole life.It's the Depression, and times are hard on everyone.
The near mythic meeting of Seabiscuit and War Admiral on November 1, 1938 at Pimlico is an extension of the movie's overall theme; Seabiscuit, the representative of underdog hopes and pioneering dreams, and War Admiral, the recipient of champion breeding and training, a product of assembly line thinking.Bridges and Maguire give spirited performances, with their characters forming a father and son bond that both men desperately needed.
The conflicts are fought not on traditional battlefields, but atop magnificent beasts along a circular track, and Ross wisely utilizes this metaphor to full effect.Many film goers this season will most certainly pass on `Seabiscuit,' choosing instead to see standard fare like `American Wedding' and `Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life.' Others will undoubtedly avoid it because it looks to artsy to be entertaining.
But Gray and his chief collaborators, the talented author Lauren Hillenbrand and the splendid cast headed by Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper, and co-producer Tobey McGuire, have nonetheless provided us with a quite wonderful movie, as much for its surefire writing and brilliant editing as for any of the acting.Everyone must agree that the three men behind the most famous horse of his time are played by three of the best actors Hollywood now has to offer.
But within the context of this beautifully made movie that believes in itself, we buy it.)It's important, anyway - if young people do come to see Seabiscuit - for them to get the simplified, but nonetheless just portrait of the times provided with authentic stills and footage, and the voiceover narration by iconic historian David ("The Civil War") McCullough.
The travelogue of the Depression and Prohibition years includes a quiet but heartfelt plug for FDR and that, too, is moving, especially in today's post-Yuppie mood of numbingly exploitive jingoism.Indeed each of the three actors gives a powerfully understated performance - they're like thoroughbreds who're never given their head - whose litotes (a word schoolboys learned back then) enhances the movie's epic quality by never letting us forget that their triumphs were snatched from deprivation and adversity.The long time devoted to the three men's backgrounds early in the movie isn't ill spent.
As is a little too clearly pointed out, all three men, Charles Howard, Tom Smith, and Red Pollard, have had great devastation and loss in their lives (echoed by the whole country's economic devastation, failure, and loss of nerve; and it's implied -- with some failure of restraint -- that Seabiscuit's underdog triumphs were as needed as the New Deal).
Out of all this failure and tragedy the men forge their victories: Seabiscuit, the horse that lacked breeding, was untrainable, and was `too small'; Pollard, abandoned by his parents, beaten in many prize fights, secretly blind in one eye and `too big' to be a top jockey; Smith, a gifted horse tamer and trainer reduced to riding the rails and hoboing; Bridges, the self-made millionaire devastated by the destruction of all his hopes in a ruined economy and the sudden death of his young only son.
One only wishes there were more of a progression; that the character didn't sip from the same bottle in every scene but got drunker, or soberer, as things went along.We have to allow for the exigencies of filmmaking that required ten horses to be used for Seabiscuit, leading to the irony that this unique horse is a composite.If you accept its conventionality, Seabiscuit is not just a good movie but a great one..
He gathers the old couch Tom Smith (Chris Cooper), the problematic jockey Red Pollard (Tobey Maguire) and the horse Seabiscuit, all of them losers, and he believes on them, giving a second chance to them.
Being a thoroughbred race horse by birth, Seabiscuit treads the race track under the watchful eyes of trainer Tom Smith (played by Chris Cooper) and jockey Red Poddard (played by Tobey Mcguire).
It offers credibility to the old saying that 'if there's a will, there's a way.' It's a great reminder that there had been people - of yesteryears - who had been brave and courageous to accept the underdogs with heartfelt benevolence.As a film, revolving around the inspiring story of Seabiscuit, it works well.
Watching the horse transformed into a winner is as aesthetically beautiful as seeing 'Cinderella' transformed into a beauty by her three 'fairy godmothers.' This film has a compelling story that salutes the American dream.This adaptation of Laura Hillenbrand's book, unfortunately, does omit a great deal of the interesting biographical accounts of the trio's lives and the historical impressions of the nation's era between 1903-1940.
The movie centers on a horse and a good rider (Toby McGuire) , the trainer (Chris Cooper) , the owner (Jeff Bridges) and his wife(Elizabeth Banks) and a journalist (Willian H.
Make it a story where the horse and it's jockey have to overcome injury to win it's final great race, and you got your tearjerker (and, therefore, Oscar winner) right there.But, somehow, 'Seabiscuit' is much more than that.
His inspirational speeches make 'Seabiscuit' a crowd-pleaser, in particular that of the 'common people', who recognize themselves in the little horse.As said, the movie is a little bit too much of a happy ending story to really make it into the 'classic' category, but the movie looks great and hasn't got a boring moment in it.
In fairness, no two-hour film can do justice to a good book.In this case, there were many things the jockey, owner and trainer went through that made the story so compelling, and they weren't in the movie.
Many other great performances in this movie by the always enjoyable Jeff Bridges, the outstanding Chris Cooper (Adaptation.) and the beautiful Elizabeth Banks (Spiderman) who plays Bridges' second wife.Although this second Gary Ross-movie is less my kind of movie than "Pleasentville" was, I truly enjoyed watching it.
It was the family friend who was supposed to be looking out for him who abandoned him.2) Charles Howard's son was 16, not 12, when he died in a car accident going fishing, and *not* because his father pressured him in any way.3) As I understand it, Red Pollard never told anyone except his wife that he was blind in his right eye, and Charles Howard and Tom Smith both went to their graves without realizing that their former jockey could only see out of one eye.4)The movie turns Tom Smith into a kind of clichéd "horse whisperer", which was true, but it left out his very marked ornery side - the mind games he was always playing with reporters, the fact that he cared more about horses than people, to the point of not even noticing when one of his underlings was very sick.5) The movie does not show the extent of Red Pollard's injuries - he had not one but three serious riding accidents before winning the Santa Anita (including the one where he lost his sight).
The Direction, The Cinematography, The Performances, all pitch in nicely.'Seabiscuit' tells the story of Three men, who, come together, respectively, as the principal jockey, owner, and trainer of the championship horse Seabiscuit, rising from troubled times to achieve fame and success through their association with the horse.Gary Ross's Adapted Screenplay, manages to make a worthy true-story into a worthy film.
I truly believe all these performers made4 this movie the best it could have possibly been.Because Seabiscuit isn't really a racing movie, or a sports movie- it's a beautiful and touching look at how the relationship between this horse and this man could change so many lives, and, ultimately, change America.
Usually when the book of a film is made (A La Akiva Goldsman, "A Beautiful Mind) the makers feel the need to Hollywoodise it and take out the more objectionable elements, for this film the real story of Seabiscuit is so amazing that they had to actually remove some of the elements that were too Hollywood, such is the story of this marvellous little race horse.Seabiscuit was a racehorse deemed too demanding by its original trainer and sold to Charles Howard, an automobile salesman.
Smith hired jockey Red Pollard to ride the biscuit and the combination of owner, rider and trainer would reap dividends, becoming a symbol of hope for America during the great depression, managing to beat all comers, with the the exception of the one horse that stood above the entire thoroughbred division, the mighty War Admiral.This film is another of Dave Ross' excellent under-rated body of work, with a cast giving great performances, most notably Chris Cooper as the quietly all-knowing Smith.
The story of the other main lead, the biscuit, is also done with real skill, with the training and races handled superbly, managing to convey both the excitement and the inherent dangers in being a jockey at the end of the great depression.This would have been considered a rank outsider for the best picture, had it contended in any other year when the "The Return of the King" wasn't contending, but just because it didn't win, don't let that put you off investing an hour and a half in one of the best true stories of all time.PS.
Self-made millionaire Charles Howard (Jeff Bridges) takes an interest in horse racing and hires Tom Smith (Chris Cooper) as the trainer.
Red Pollard (Tobey Maguire) is too tall and the horse, Seabiscuit, is too small, but Smith sees the same fighting spirit in both of them and sets out to make winners of this unlikely pairing.And since this is clearly the story of underdogs who give their all, there's nary a single moment in this film that's not predictable or even slightly manipulative in one fashion or another.
Worse yet, there's no emotional payoff, when the parents say "We'll be back" but we ultimately end up never hearing from them again, I wondered why writer/director Gary Ross went to the trouble of even including his parents in the picture (the later quotes from famous works of literature that Pollard recites from his childhood adds absolutely nothing to the picture).In comparison, the film's more interesting characters, Charles Howard and especially Tom Smith, are given the short shrift, particularly Smith, whose brief set up mostly consists of him riding and lassoing horses.
It's a bit unfair to compare Maguire to two highly experienced pros, but in this day and age when child actors can hold their own among the older crowd (as Max Pirkis amazingly did in Master and Commander), I expect more from even a dullard like Maguire.The training scenes are among the film's most amusing, best of all is a hilarious off-screen encounter between Seabiscuit (the horse) and a goat.
I suppose what it's really about is family; these men are lost boys who find in each other the families they have lost and in the roles Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper and Tobey Maguire give marvellous performances, (Cooper is quite magnificent), as well as being a history of America in the years following the Great Crash, and thanks to John Schwartzman's wonderful cinematography it looks absolutely gorgeous..
Chris Cooper played this part to perfection.Toby McGuire, as Red Pollard, gave an outstanding performance as the kid who was given away by his parents and through resolve achieved his main ambition to be loved and welcome.Jeff Bridges gave a good indication of a caring human being regardless of his wealth, his action and interaction with the other actors and actresses was first class.All the actors, horses etc gave of their best in this Movie.Congratulations to all..
Maguire was fresh off the first Spiderman film when he was cast, but he did some great acting in this feature.The history involved in the making of Seabiscuit was tremendous, as a lot of time and facts went into the production; and having David McCullough narrate was great.
So it came as no surprise that I really enjoyed 'Seabiscuit.' This is an old-fashioned movie where time is taken to develop characters and tell a good story.
The best performances in this movie were given by Gary Stevens, who is a professional jockey and not an actor and the horse who plays Seabiscuit, who is in fact a HORSE.
It's amazing that director Ross has crammed so much adventure and history and luxurious evocation of past times into two-and-a-half hours, and even better that there are three penetrating if old-fashioned performances that frequently moved this viewer to tears.Seabiscuit is the dominant horse story of the last century, from a time when such things were really important, when the communication between a human and an animal were more important than exploding buildings and noisy car crashes; this is a traditional Hollywood film that is brilliant colored, careful to recreate periods, offering, along with an ample amount of suspense and on the track adventure as well as a wee history lesson.
Instead of merely engaging in a chronological history of Seabiscuit and his owner Charles Howard (Jeff Bridges), his trainer Tom Smith (Chris Cooper), and his jokey Red Pollard (Tobey McGuire), the film sets out to establish a context for the story.
One of the recurring themes of the story of Seabiscuit is how the horse, at first dismissed as having no racing potential, symbolized hope for a broken down nation, and how he beat the odds at nearly every turn of the race track.After the historical subtext is established, the film moves between three different stories: the eventual owner Charles Howard who became a successful automobile salesman in the 1920's, Tom Smith, a down-on-his-luck trainer who was regarded as an eccentric by others in the racing world, and Red Pollard who began life in a middle-class family in Canada.
HOrses are my life and nothing else matters and I am also a huge fanatic of Tobey Maguire!...He played great..so did jeff and chris...and Gary Ross made an extremely AMAZING film.
Seabiscuit is the ultimate underdog picture with no less than three tragedy-stricken "losers" making comebacks in racing and life.Tobey Maguire is intensely sympathetic as the hard-knock jockey dealing with more than his share of tough breaks (though that thick shock of blindingly red hair takes a little getting used to); Chris Cooper's understated performance as the softspoken trainer with a magic touch keeps "maudlin" out of the reviewer's vocabulary; and Jeff Bridges is - well, Jeff Bridges in his "power of positive thinking" mode.
Red and Seabiscuit who are both volatile become close and the horse racks up some impressive victories in the west coast and captures the public's imagination but there are more obstacles to overcome.Director Gary Ross gives the film plenty of heart and sentimentality and just about gets away with it because the cast invest so much in the story despite some well worn clichés but uplifts you as the viewer..
As you would expect, both Jeff Bridges and Chris Cooper give good performances as Seabiscuit's owner and trainer.If you are not into horses or would rather see an action movie then this is not for you, though i think that after you have seen it you would agree that it is a great emotional family film which can tug at the heartstrings.
Millionaire owner Charles Howard (Jeff Bridges) recruits horse trainer Tom Smith (Chris Cooper), jockey Red Pollard (Tobey McGuire) and a horse named Seabiscuit to complete his horse racing team to fulfill a need in his life.
Seabiscuit is the true story of a horse that brought hope to many people during the Great Depression in America during the 1930's.
It showed them that even the little guy could come out on top.Seabiscuit starring Tobey Maguire, Academy Award winning Chris Cooper and Jeff Bridges is a great heart-warming film that everyone will love.
The true story of an unorthadox race horse and his unorthadox jockey becoming famous on the race track is one of the most heartwarming feel-good movies I've ever seen.You're really in there with Red (played wonderfully by Tobey Maguire) as he races Seabuiscuits against all odds into American history.
At the beginning of the movie, Gary Ross pulls at the heartstrings, showing the down and out lives of three men in the early 1900's:  1)Charles Howard, the successful business man (played by Jeff Bridges) who went from producing bicycles to motor engines; 2) Red Pollard (played by Tobey Maguire), the poor young jockey of Seabiscuit who had to leave his family because of the Great Depression; and 3) Tom Smith (played by last year's Best Supporting Actor, Chris Cooper), who seems to be the most naturalistic character I've seen in a while.