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Seabiscuit, the true story of a knobby-kneed racehorse and three men
down on their luck, is the latest Docu-Epic from Hollywood, beautifully
filmed in California, with its signature late-afternoon golden light,
close-up intimate shots of emotional facial expressions, and the
freedom-like feeling anyone gets when watching a horse run freely in a
pasture. It's the telling of an American dream: a depression-era drama
about down-trodden misfits and an unlikely animal hero who overcome
the odds. Yes, this two-hour and twenty minute cinematic masterpiece
is sure to grab the public by their little heartstrings, and send them
tearfully home with hankies and sniffles, proud to be a member of that
great expanse of land between the oceans known as…. America.
Ahem. Ok, the more sober description goes this way: Laura Hillenbrand's
wonderfully-crafted book about the race-horse, Seabiscuit, is going to
be this year's mid-summer blockbuster.
It's not a terrible movie by the home stretch of the imagination, but
like my early characterization, "Seabiscuit" is a huge glorification
of a documentary intended only to show the best side of an otherwise
ratty bunch of well-meaning characters. Jeff Bridges leads the pack as
Charles Howard, the flamboyant bicycle repairman-turned-millionaire,
who purchases Seabiscuit at the behest of his recently hired trainer,
Tom Smith, played by Chris Cooper. Smith, a sort of horse whisperer who
was known for his quiet nature and his ability to get along with horses
better than people, meets Red Pollard, the infamous jockey, played by
Tobey McGuire, who reportedly lost 25 pounds to fill the part. Seabiscuit
and the three men, all down and out underdogs with their independent
and wretched pasts, all helped revive each other through Seabiscuit,
and give the American people a reason to hope during the Great Depression.
The movie is another retelling of a timeless theme that always wins with
audiences: good-guy losers beating the odds. When you mix a sure-fire
premise with gorgeous cinematography, you can't lose. And this movie won't
lose either. But that doesn't mean the movie is as good as the reviews -
or the box office - will claim it is. The main problem with the film is
that it tries to serve two masters. That is, it's both a documentary and
a dramatic Hollywood big-screen Epic. The movie's "documentary" aspect
leaves a lot of things out, and ends on a great, wonderful, victorious
event, despite the real story ending quite differently. Similarly,
the film's "drama" suffers, because it leaves out the deeper and more
disturbing character flaws and relationships that truly fleshed out the
characters. The film does manage to stir emotions about a profoundly
difficult era with a historian-narrated commentary, and photos to boot,
but the context doesn't translate well to how the characters think or
behave. In short, the movie's parts are all great, but they don't tie
together well-enough as a whole.
All in all, Seabiscuit is a really good-looking film, with great lighting,
epic-like proportions, terrific acting, but there is nothing really
interesting about the film except for the story itself, which is better
told by Hillenbrand's book.
You can find this movie on the internet database here:
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0329575
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