Seabiscuit (Full Screen)
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Movie Reviews of Seabiscuit (Full Screen)
Movie Review: Great cinematography
Summary: 4 Stars
This is an absolutely beautifully made film that captures the period and the excitement of horseracing in stunning fashion. Jeff Bridges, Toby McGuire and Chris Cooper all give fine performances. How they got the horses in this film to perform as they did is the real story. Absolutely magical for lovers of horseracing or horses in general. I thought the actors were good but the horses were wonderful. The movie is overly sentimental and at times a bit corny but overall it is a very good entertainment.Movie Review: Not just a horse tale, but a timely message for today
Summary: 4 Stars
I was struck by how this 2003 film resonates in 2009's economic meltdown for this is a story of The Great Depression's major media obession: the racehorse who beat the odds and made a big comeback. The story took peoples' minds off hard times back in 1938, and the well-done movie is capable of a similar, though much shorter-lasting, feat today. Jeff Bridges is great. There are many twists and turns in this movie. It's not just a horse racing yarn. Do catch this.Movie Review: Can't Go Wrong If You Like Horses
Summary: 3 Stars
If Ron Howard directed `Seabiscuit', the film would have, in all probability, drowned in its own sappiness. Gary Ross manages to avoid over-romanticizing, which is a considerable accomplishment, bearing in mind Hollywood's usual addendum of tear-jerking moments when it comes to adapting "prize-winning-semi-biographical" novels. I haven't read Laura Hillenbrand's novel, and I think it's for the better - the film was a tad too long anyways, and it would have been inconceivable for me to sit through it if I knew what was coming. It is a well-structured motion picture that won't surprise but will sustain interest. Despite the occasional slip into schmaltz (boy and horse interacting, aawww; Randy Newman`s embroidered score), under Gary Ross' practiced (`Pleasantville') guidance `Seabiscuit' is still a notch above the average Dream Factory melodrama. The film looks gorgeous. John Schwartzman's camera-work impresses, especially considering his previous efforts ('Armageddon' umm... 'Airheads'...) The mid-20th Century is well-portrayed, and the races are brilliantly photographed.
The film also has heart, and most of it comes from the inspired performances, especially from its three leading stars. Jeff Bridges is one of the most underrated Hollywood actors (his Oscar-worthy performances in Peter Weir's `Fearless' and the Coen bro`s `The Big Lebowski' were ignored by the Academy), and gives a multi-layered performance as a kind but overly-motivated man, evading recollection of his son's loss by exploiting a young jockey (Maguire in his most nuanced performance since Ang Lee's `The Ice Storm') and a beat-down small horse with extraordinary abilities. Chris Cooper does `subliminal' as the horse's proprietor - he's a tranquil animal lover, who saved that horse and put his faith in it.
Clearly, above all things, the film belongs to its horses - gracious, they elegantly gallop towards their fate - the viewers are treated with multiple angles of the race, as well as POV shots of the jockeys that are invigorating. Seabiscuit, in spite of his minor bulk, is utterly believable as the champion of the stadium. It's not all triumphs for him, and the film, despite the flaws, competently guides its audience into cheering for its protagonist.
Not a masterpiece by any standards, `Seabiscuit' is for horse-lovers and/or for younger kids, as a source of inspiration. The messages are pounded into the viewer's head, borderline frustrating, but Ross' assured direction will keep an average viewer mildly riveted.
PS If you are not too into melodramas, horses, or Tobey Maguire boasting thinning red hair, then consider 'Seabiscuit' a 'rainy Sunday night movie'. On a Friday night, you'll think of ten thousand other things to do but be enveloped in Hollywood gloss. But on a rainy Sunday night, with a partner of the opposite sex perhaps, it would mae a purrfect treat.
Movie Review: Accepting the challenge of life is difficult.
Summary: 3 Stars
In this feature film about horseracing and one champion, we vicariously travel back in time to see the beginnings of a rich pasttime. In New York City 1910, the Ford Model T, off the assembly line developed by Ford Motors, competes with all the pretty horses for the attention and money of those who flaunt their status. The horses are on a ranch, encirled by something new then, barbed wire fence.
Across country, it is till a varied transportation in San Francisco where the horse and carriages races bucyckesm the Stanley Steamer and a very small locomotive. An optimistic repairman became a car salesman for Buick. The old race cars were something else. The future is in the finish line.
In Alberta, Canada, the sky is the limit! Betting on the horses was the thing to do in Tijuana, Mexico, as a mariachi band plays and the liquor flows where gambling proliferates. There is a Spanish bullfight, matadors all decked out for the kill. The 1929 Crash on Wass Street causes unemployment, homelessness, and the Great Depression is born. Tor those who have them, there is a national migration in their automobiles.
This is a disjointed story but, finally, the stars Sea Biscuit and Tobey Maguire, too big to be a jockey, are there in all their glory at the famous racetrack in Kentucky. Tom Smith made a good medicine man.
Red is all grown up telling his stories about Sultan. In Saratoga, New York, we've come full circle. After a successful team effort, Sea Biscuit, a real race horse, is put out to pasture ans is shown as Ferdinand, a fictional character, sitting under a Juniper tree. Thank goodness, he didn't have the same fate as Barbaro.
Movie Review: Somewhat disappointing
Summary: 3 Stars
I found this movie over long and rather disappointing, especially the racing scenes. They were not very well done. First of all, with all the pounding hooves of the horses, their labored breathing under heavy stress, crowd noise, the wind, etc. you cannot carry on a conversation with the jockey beside you as though you were sitting side by side in armchairs in someone's living room. Secondly, if you are actually astride a galloping horse, the riders motions would be different. It almost seemed as though they were projecting scenes flashing by behind the actor and he was pretending to be riding a horse. (Sorry but it just wasn't realistic.) I thought it was a decent movie except for the above. I just wish they had paid more attention to the racing scenes and tried to generate some excitement. I did like the documentary style they were using. Guess seeing the movie Secretariat before getting this DVD spoiled it for me. That movie was everything this one was not. I LOVED Hillenbrand's book and the PBS documentary on Seabiscuit was excellent. Seabiscuit was one tough, gutsy horse.