After you wade through about 45 minutes of the history of Charles Howard, Red Pollard, and Tom Smith, you get a two minute pedigree of Seabiscuit, the horse. Interspaced are several shots of the Depression era and homage to "second chances" that are completely useless as far as I could tell. The story is supposed to be about the horse overcoming obstacles to first beat War Admiral one on one, then to win the Santa Anita with Pollard on back. However, all sorts of ideosyncracies and distractions occur to throw the viewer off the true point.

Watching if you haven't read the book and don't know much about Sea Biscuit. It's great for human development and literary aspirations, but boring for entertainment. If you're looking to see the horse, you know, race, there's maybe 20 minutes total footage through the whole movie of THAT.

The horse races. I love to see those babies run.

Again, where to start?
I have a hard time believing jockeys carry on conversations while racing.
Thanks for changing history. Instead of a teenage son dying, we lose an 18 year old. No one tells us that Howard had another son who was, coincidentally, married to Marcella (his 2nd wife)'s sister.
There was more than one meeting with War Admiral, and I felt the first one should have been left in to heighten tension. Not to mention to tell the truth.
We beat War Admiral, and that's good, but then suddenly, winning the Santa Anita becomes important. The fact is, it was ALWAYS important to Howard, but we don't find that out until the end, when we usher in Red Pollard.
For a man notorious for saying nothing, Tom Smith sure talked an awful lot.
They never really explained why Red was hesitant to eat. They just brushed it.

Cry. I loved Hilldebrand's book, and was excited about the movie - I was really looking forward to it. It was my 2nd best Christmas present. At the end, I felt very disappointed. The writers/producers broke faith with the simple, easy lies (the son, the wife) so I didn't know whether to trust them through the rest of the movie.

Disappointed, sad, and depressed.

They did a good job. Except the horse - we almost never saw him. And speaking of the horse, Sea Biscuit had a peculiar gait, which was never mentioned, much less shown. He had a brother that the press couldn't tell the difference between. Both were no shows.

It's good if you don't want to know anything.

It is not true to history. The writers lie to you from the get-go.

This film had so much potential. The book was fantastic. The interspacing of the Depression, with comparisons to horse racing, was absolutely random. I was sorely irritated when they took the race between the Biscuit and War Admiral and spent the beginning showing people listening to the radio. They already established that with their 'days off' and sell-out show. No where near enough time was spent on the horse - it was all human. I was very, very disappointed.

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Created Dec 28, 2003 at 6:50am • Submit your own review...