: Seabiscuit
I had zero interest in seeing this film. It’s long at over two hours, it’s about a horse (I’m not much of a horse person), about horse racing (even worse), and set fifty-some years ago. Boring! But the timing proved fortuitious. At the time I was ready to go see a film, this was the only one showing, so I decided to give it a whirl. It turns out the film’s not about a horse, but about America. This is the story of how a nation was broken and battered by the Great Depression, but found inspiration in a broken horse that became a champion.
The film follows the life of the horse’s owner, a penniless bicycle repair man (Jeff Bridges) who turned his talents to the new horseless carriages and made a fortune, but lost his son to accident and now carries a broken heart; the horse’s trainer (played by the always excellent Chris Cooper) who’s more horse than man; and the horse’s jockey, a battered loser who’s too tall and has no peripheral vision in his right eye. The group sounds like a setup for chaos, but the personalities all mesh with Seabiscuit, a horse of good lineage but poor treatment, who’s tossed aside as worthless. With the proper training and loving attention, Seabiscuit becomes a champion, and eventually takes on the reigning champion. But just when you think the story’s over, there’s another twist: the jockey’s horribly injured and will never ride again, and the horse ruptures a tendon and will never race. But despite those predictions by doctors, the two fight back and prove the naysayers wrong. Yes, it’s long, but it’s surprisingly interesting and keeps moving. It’s not boring at all. I saw no evidence of the supposed $100 million budget: if there are special effects they are carefully hidden. The horse races are mildly interesting, but predictable (of course). But it’s the characters you care about, and there’s humor in their interaction. But mostly this is a story about an important time in American history. It’s an excellent movie and worth seeing.
Topic: [/movie] |
