Seabiscuit
reviewed by Benn "Where's the Humanity?" Farrell

By all rights and reason, "Seabiscuit" should be crowned the best picture this country can produce this year. However, I think come Oscar time, it shall be forgotten for all the top honors.

"Seabiscuit" is an allegorical look at America during some of its darkest years. The great depression was in full swing, family were forced to split up to survive and a race horse named Seabiscuit represented the re-building the country's spirit and economical solidarity.

Oscar winner Chris Cooper, Jeff Bridges and Tobey MacGuire head a well cast roster of performers in this highly spirited "over-coming-all-odds" hero picture. Each of them play key characters who have suffered along the roads of life and made costly mistakes but somehow find a way to bounce back and show the world there's always a dream to be had.

Bridges plays Charles Howard, a former Buick man hit by the depression and the owner of the gelding who places his trust in a nomad trainer named Tom, played by Cooper, who then discovers seeing impaired oversized jockey Red Pollard (MacGuire) to take "The Biscuit" to fame and glory on two different occassions.

Special appearances are also made by renowned Irish actor Brian Cox and Hall of Fame horse racing jockey Gary Stevens as George Woolf, who takes over as Seabiscuit's rider at a very crucial time in the film. Audiences will also recognize Oscar nominee William H. Macy as eccentric radio journalist Tick-Tock McGlaughlin.

The performances were very brilliant, but most of the females among the cast lacked both forethought and screen time. Cinematography was also very captivating without getting too artsy.

Director Gary Ross, whose only other director credit includes "Pleasantville," of which he an Academy Award nomination as a writer, kept the focus of the film, never allowing the parallel between the four main characters (including the horse) and the status of America during that time, to the point where America becomes a character itself.

However, at one point where one may feel the film is ready to end, we suddenly find ourselves in the middle of a second-second act, where jockey Pollard and Seabiscuit must fight their greatest obstacles, their physical health and the will to fight for something great.

The spare second act tends to drag the film as a whole down, but the pay off is soon worth the extra minutes. "Seabiscuit" is well worth a couple of trips to the cinema.

Benn - Where's the Humanity?

I did not read Benn's review of Seabiscuit until after I saw the movie. A friend of mine told me to go see it but I waited until it came out on DVD just because I had that nagging feeling that I wouldn't have like it as much as he thought I would. I was right I didn't like as much as my friend thought I would or as much as Benn did.

My biggest problem in the movie was the first thirty minutes. It dragged so much that I thought about turning the movie off at least 3 times, but there was nothing else to watch so I kept it on. The first thirty minutes sets up the background for all of the characters but I feel they could have got the same information across in half the time. During that time, most of the background is spent on Bridges character the rest on Maguire's character, and very little on Coopers character. It was so disproportionate that I thought the movie was about Bridges character instead of the whole group.

That being said, after the first thirty minutes the movie picks up and becomes quite fascinating. I enjoyed the rest of the movie although I would have like to see more done on Chris Coopers's character, Tom Smith, because I feel he was by far the most interesting character of the bunch. I agree with Benn in that there was no female presence in the movie. I thought the movie as whole was well acted even though every time I see Jeff Bridges I get the feeling he is working too hard to get that Oscar clip in every scene. Tobey Maguire did a good job on a tired character, by that I mean it's a character done in movie's over and over.

Overall, I like the movie just not as much as Benn. I think there are other movies out there deserving of Oscar and I think this one will be missed. But it is still worth seeing, once.

Brian - the Naked Gun