|
|
| We
begin to find wholeness in the midst of brokenness when we begin to
come together. In all our trials, as individuals or as a nation, we
need to learn to be in community. There we can, like Seabiscuit and
Red and Tom and Charles, heal and be healed. |
(2003) Film Review by DARREL MANSON |
| This
page was created on July 11, 2003
This page was last updated on
August 2, 2003
—Review
—Trailers, Photos
—About this Film
—Spiritual Connections
—Forum
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| CREDITS |
| Directed
by Gary Ross
Book by Laura Hillenbrand
Screenplay by Gary Ross
Tobey Maguire .... Red Pollard
Jeff Bridges .... Charles Howard
Elizabeth Banks .... Marcela Howard
Chris Cooper .... Tom Smith
William H. Macy .... Tick Tock McGlaughlin
Gary Stevens .... George Woolf
rest of cast listed alphabetically
Clif Alvey .... Angry Trainer
Michael Angarano .... Young Red Pollard
Mariah Bess .... Pollard Daughter
Robin Bissell .... Reporter Skip
Sam Bottoms .... Bush League Trainer
Produced
by
Gary Barber .... executive producer
Roger Birnbaum .... executive producer
Robin Bissell .... executive producer
Patricia Churchill .... co-producer
Patricia Churchill .... line producer
Kathleen Kennedy .... producer
Tobey Maguire .... executive producer
Frank Marshall .... producer
Gary Ross .... producer
Jane Sindell .... producer
Allison Thomas .... executive producer
Billy Frank .... producer: opening title sequence
Original Music by Randy Newman
Cinematography by John Schwartzman
Film Editing by William Goldenberg
Rated
For rating reasons, go to FILMRATINGS.COM,
and MPAA.ORG.
Parents, please refer to PARENTALGUIDE.ORG
|
| TRAILERS
AND CLIPS |
| —Trailers,
Photos |
| CD |
Seabiscuit
[Enhanced soundtrack]
Randy Newman
|
| BOOK |
|
Seabiscuit:
An American Legend
by Laura Hillenbrand
Amazon.com's Best of 2001
He didn't look like much. With his smallish stature, knobby knees,
and slightly crooked forelegs, he looked more like a cow pony than
a thoroughbred. But looks aren't everything; his quality, an admirer
once wrote, "was mostly in his heart." Laura Hillenbrand
tells the story of the horse who became a cultural icon in Seabiscuit:
An American Legend.
Seabiscuit
rose to prominence with the help of an unlikely triumvirate: owner
Charles Howard, an automobile baron who once declared that "the
day of the horse is past"; trainer Tom Smith, a man who "had
cultivated an almost mystical communication with horses"; and
jockey Red Pollard, who was down on his luck when he charmed a then-surly
horse with his calm demeanor and a sugar cube. Hillenbrand details
the ups and downs of "team Seabiscuit," from early training
sessions to record-breaking victories, and from serious injury to
"Horse of the Year"--as well as the Biscuit's fabled rivalry
with War Admiral. She also describes the world of horseracing in the
1930s, from the snobbery of Eastern journalists regarding Western
horses and public fascination with the great thoroughbreds to the
jockeys' torturous weight-loss regimens, including saunas in rubber
suits, strong purgatives, even tapeworms.
Along
the way, Hillenbrand paints wonderful images: tears in Tom Smith's
eyes as his hero, legendary trainer James Fitzsimmons, asked to hold
Seabiscuit's bridle while the horse was saddled; critically injured
Red Pollard, whose chest was crushed in a racing accident a few weeks
before, listening to the San Antonio Handicap from his hospital bed,
cheering "Get going, Biscuit! Get 'em, you old devil!";
Seabiscuit happily posing for photographers for several minutes on
end; other horses refusing to work out with Seabiscuit because he
teased and taunted them with his blistering speed.
Though
sometimes her prose takes on a distinctly purple hue ("His history
had the ethereal quality of hoofprints in windblown snow"; "The
California sunlight had the pewter cast of a declining season"),
Hillenbrand has crafted a delightful book. Wire to wire, Seabiscuit
is a winner. Highly recommended. --Sunny Delaney
|
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| SYNOPSIS
|
 From
Universal Pictures, Dreamworks Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment,
"Seabiscuit," an American epic of triumph
and perseverance set during the Great Depression, is based on the
best-selling book that was one of the most popular and widely read
non-fiction books of recent years. It is the story of three men -
a jockey (Maguire), a trainer (Cooper) and a businessman (Bridges)
- and the down-and-out racehorse that took them and the entire nation
on the ride of a lifetime. |
Review by
DARREL MANSON BLOG
Pastor,
Artesia Christian Church, Artesia, CA
http://netministries.org/see/churches/ch01198
Darrel has an incredible love and interest in the cinematic arts.
His reviews usually include independent and significantly important
film. |
"You
don't throw out a whole life because it's been beaten up a little."
Seabiscuit is a story of a racehorse who captured
the fancy of the American people in 1938. According to Laura Hillenbrand's
research in writing her book (on which the film is based), Seabiscuit
was the leading newsmaker that year, generating more column inches
of news stories than Hitler or Mussolini or FDR. He was too small,
given up on as untrainable, and viewed as worthless. But he beat the
best horse of the day, Triple Crown winner War Admiral, in a match
race.
Gary Ross has taken this story (and with some changes from Hillenbrand's
book for dramatic purposes) shown the ways that healing can occur
in times of brokenness. The story is populated by broken people: Charles
Howard has gained wealth and even maintained it during the Great Depression,
but has lost his son - his future; Tom Smith has lost his world of
the wide open ranges; Red Pollard has lost his family, having been
tearfully abandoned as a teen by his parents because he was able to
provide for himself and they needed to provide for their other children;
and of course, Seabiscuit, a horse that has forgotten
what it means to be a horse.
Ross also makes the Depression a character in this story by including
photography from the era and voice over by historian David McCullough.
The brokenness of the people and the nation during that time also
finds a bit of healing in the story of this horse.
 Tobey
Maquire's voice over at the end of the film says that Seabiscuit
healed the broken people in the story. But it isn't the horse that
heals, rather, the healing takes place through the symbiosis that
occurs when all these broken characters come together. The community
heals - whether that is the community of the quasi-family built up
around Seabiscuit, or the community of the American
people coming together in celebration of this underdog horse.
There are a couple of American myths that are addressed by this film.
(By myth, I mean the stories or beliefs that define us as a people,
regardless of whether they are true or false.) One is the way we always
seem to view ourselves as David, even when the facts
show us to be Goliath. Americans always seem to hope
for the little guy to beat the big guy. In sports, we may put our
money on the team with the most talent and stars, but in our hearts
we hope for a Cinderella team to put them in their place. It is an
egalitarian view. It tells us that we have a chance, even if we aren't
the richest person or the strongest person or the smartest person.
Seabiscuit captured the hearts of the struggling
nation because if he could overcome his difficulties, the people of
the Depression had a chance to overcome theirs.
The other myth that is addressed in Seabiscuit is
that of rugged individualism. We like to believe
that it's up to each person to succeed or fail. If trouble comes,
we face it alone. If pain comes, we think we should suck it up and
move on. This film shatters that notion. It is a reminder that we
only truly find healing when we come together. None of the individuals
in the film were able, on their own, to overcome the tragedies of
their lives. When they were brought together, they found healing as
they brought healing to one another.
In one scene, Red walks by a line for a soup kitchen. It's not that
he's not hungry, but he is trying to do get by all by himself. He
refuses to be helped. It isn't until he allows others into his life
(as seen at the dining table in the Howard home) that he can begin
to be healed. The rugged individual he is trying to be cannot find
wholeness alone.
Some commentators have suggested Ross is making a political statement
in the film, especially in his including the Depression and New Deal
programs as such a key element. To be sure, for many people now there
are hard times. Ross, a one-time speechwriter for Democrats such a
Michael Dukakis and Bill Clinton, may well want to say that he believes
more should be done than the present administration is doing.
However, the message that underlies that is even more important. It
is the message that we need to understand that we are in this together.
Wholeness is not a matter of the individual, but is truly found when
we are community.
 In
the times of deepest tragedy, times like the death of JFK or the atrocities
of September 11, we begin to find wholeness in the midst of brokenness
when we begin to come together. Church attendance soared for the first
few weeks after the terrorist attacks. Many may have been looking
for some theological answers. But I think that deep down, we knew
that we just had to be together.
In all our trials, as individuals or as a nation, we need to learn
to be in community. There we can, like Seabiscuit
and Red and Tom and Charles, heal and be healed. |
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