Seabiscuit (film)
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2011) |
| Seabiscuit | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster |
|
| Directed by | Gary Ross |
| Produced by | Gary Ross Kathleen Kennedy Frank Marshall Jane Sindell |
| Screenplay by | Gary Ross |
| Based on | Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand |
| Narrated by | David McCullough |
| Starring | Tobey Maguire Jeff Bridges Chris Cooper William H. Macy Elizabeth Banks |
| Music by | Randy Newman |
| Cinematography | John Schwartzman |
| Editing by | William Goldenberg |
| Studio | Spyglass Entertainment The Kennedy/Marshall Company |
| Distributed by | Universal Studios DreamWorks |
| Release date(s) | July 22, 2003 |
| Running time | 141 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $87 million |
| Box office | $148,336,445[1] |
Seabiscuit is a 2003 American biographical sports drama film based on the best-selling non-fiction book Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand. The film is loosely based on the life and racing career of Seabiscuit, an undersized and overlooked thoroughbred race horse, whose unexpected successes made him a hugely popular media sensation in the United States near the end of the Great Depression.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Three men, Red Pollard (Tobey Maguire), Charles S. Howard (Jeff Bridges), and Tom Smith (Chris Cooper) 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.
Red is the child of a wealthy family that is financially ruined by the Great Depression. In desperate need of money, the family leaves Red with a horse trainer. Red eventually becomes a jockey, but makes extra money through illegal boxing matches which leave him almost blind in one eye. Howard is a clerk in a bicycle shop who 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, which sends Howard into a bout of deep depression, which eventually results in his wife (Valerie Mahaffey) leaving him. On a trip to Mexico to obtain a divorce and to drown his sorrows, he meets Marcela (Elizabeth Banks), whom he marries.
Howard then runs into Smith, a horse trainer who has been homeless. Howard hires him to take care of his newly acquired stable of horses. Smith later 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 finds Red Pollard fighting with other stable boys and sees in him a similar temperament to the horse. They begin to race Seabiscuit. After considerable success, Howard tries to provoke a race with War Admiral, the top race horse in the country. While they wait for that date, Pollard is asked to exercise a race horse for an old friend. Someone suddenly starts a tractor, spooking the horse. 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 be a jockey again, Red suggests that Howard get the successful George Woolf (Gary Stevens) to be his new rider.
Red teaches Woolf about Seabiscuit's handling and mannerisms. In the big match race, Seabiscuit upsets the heavy favorite, War Admiral, partly because of a secret that Pollard relates, instructing Woolf to hold him head to head with the other horse so he gets "a good look at the Admiral." Later on, Seabiscuit is racing at Santa Anita when he is injured and has to stop. Red helps him to recover and get fit enough to race again. The last race is again at the Santa Anita, and Red rides him this time after putting a special self-made brace on his own leg to keep it stable. Woolf is on a different horse. Seabiscuit drops to last place and trails the pack, but Woolf holds back to be alongside Red. After a short conversation, Seabiscuit surges and wins the race.
Red says, "You know, everyone thinks that we found this broken down horse and fixed him, but we didn't. He fixed us, every one of us, and I guess in a way we kinda fixed each other, too."
[edit] Cast
- Tobey Maguire as Red Pollard
- Jeff Bridges as Charles S. Howard
- Chris Cooper as Tom Smith
- Elizabeth Banks as Marcela
- Gary Stevens as George Woolf
- William H. Macy as "Tick Tock" McLaughlin
- Eddie Jones as Samuel Riddle
[edit] Production
The film was shot at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California, Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Kentucky and Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York. Keeneland was chosen to double for Pimlico Race Course because Pimlico had dramatically changed physically since Seabiscuit's time.
[edit] Critical reception
On the review website Rotten Tomatoes, 77% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 199 reviews, and an average rating of 7.1/10, with the consensus: "A life-affirming, if saccharine, epic treatment of a spirit-lifting figure in sports history".[2]
American Film Institute Recognition:
[edit] Accolades
[edit] References
- ^ "Seabiscuit (2003)". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=seabiscuit.htm. Retrieved 2009-08-21.
- ^ "Seabiscuit". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixter. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/seabiscuit. Retrieved 2011-10-29.
- ^ "The 76th Academy Awards (2004) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/legacy/ceremony/76th-winners.html. Retrieved 2011-11-20.
[edit] External links
 |
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Seabiscuit |
- Official website
- Seabiscuit at the Internet Movie Database
- Seabiscuit at Rotten Tomatoes
- Seabiscuit at Metacritic
- Seabiscuit at Box Office Mojo
- Seabiscuit at Human Science
- Photos and Facts About Seabiscuit's Great Races and Red Pollard
|
|||||
- 2003 films
- American films
- English-language films
- 2000s drama films
- American drama films
- American sports films
- Epic films
- Films about horses
- Films based on non-fiction books
- Films set in San Francisco, California
- Films set in London
- Films set in the 1920s
- Films set in the 1930s
- Films set in the 1940s
- Horse racing films
- Sports films based on actual events
- Films directed by Gary Ross
- Universal Pictures films
- DreamWorks films
- Spyglass Entertainment films
- The Kennedy/Marshall Company films
- Films distributed by Buena Vista International
