One Line Review: Seabiscuit is a once in a decade kind of movie because of its exceptional structure, acting, and storytelling.
Youtube Trailer Seabiscuit
Starring: Tobey Maguire, Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper
Director: Gary Ross
Release Date: 25 July 2003
Introduction
On this Fortunate day, Seabiscuit got released for the very first time in the theatres of the United States. This movie turned out to be the turning point of the career of actor Tobey Maguire. Because of his performance in this movie he got a name and fame in the Hollywood industry. Later he got the role of Spiderman. The only Spiderman we loved.
Let’s dig deep into the ins and outs of this movie and find out why this movie is a legendary piece of art.
Iconic dialogues from this movie
Charles Howard: You could be crippled for the rest of your life.
Red Pollard: I WAS crippled for the rest of my life. I got better. He made me better. Hell, you made me better.
Red Pollard: I *was* crippled for the rest of my life. I got better. He made me better.
Tick Tock McGlaughlin: No more match races for this little horse because frankly, they’re all out of matches. Who’s he gonna race? Pegasus? I pity these horses.
Charles Howard: The horse is too small, the jockey too big, the trainer too old, and I’m too dumb to know the difference.
Critic Reviews
The film is too long – it takes nearly an hour before we actually see the horse – and has a screenplay that deposits upon us quite a few cornball lines. But it tells such a good story in such a cleverly old-fashioned way that you go along with practically everything. It may be manipulative. But I don’t think Seabiscuit if he were alive today, would give too much of a horse laugh. – Guardian
Plot Summary
A horse trainer and a jockey, who started as a stable cleaner, commit themselves to train a horse named Seabiscuit for a race despite being unfit and having tons of setbacks. This film shows the hard work and dedication of those two men in making an ordinary horse named Seabiscuit, ‘The Seabiscuit’.
A must watch for every sports fan
This movie comedy even though it is not, has a sporty and athletic structure to it. Like every other sportsman biography out there be it Bhag Milkha Bhag, The Gold, Soorma, Moneyball, it resembles similar elements. You will see a scene of a major setback just before the final race like there was one in Bhaag Milkha Bhaag and MS Dhoni: the untold story.
This movie is a must-watch for every sports fan because we get very few quality films like this where every aspect of a sportsperson is shown. Along with its sportfish structure l, this movie shows the love and care relationship of the trainer and the jockey with a horse who stands no chance of winning races because he is way too unfit and has a lot of setbacks. The way this movie shows the dedication and struggle of those two men in making the horse from just an ordinary host to the sea biscuit is very amazing.
We have seen the chemistry between two actors before. But this was the very first time we saw perfect intact chemistry between a man and a horse. But this movie did not make the mistake of treating a horse like a human and underutilizing it’s potential to make scenes more dramatic, fast, and real. In fact, you will see the amount of hard work the back-end crew put on training the horse, calming him before shooting the scenes, making him run where they wanted to shoot the racing scene. You will see all the struggle and hard work in the scenes where the Seabiscuit enters the frame.
Acting, Direction, and Story writing
There was a thin gap for anything creative and out of the box in this story. After all, it was nothing but real-life events of a racing legend. But showing those events without tweaking them a bit would have made this film downright boring. That’s why the writers and the director of this movie need to be commended for their job. They did a great job of preserving the originality of the film and making the reality a bit more interesting. The actors have helped the director and the story writers by portraying their roles brilliantly.
Conclusion
It’s very hard to believe and sad that there are close to few movies like Seabiscuit. We all are so trapped in the shiny object syndrome that we ignore such gems. Its been over a decade and we have not witnessed another movie or a movie remotely close to Seabiscuit yet.
