The Story of Seabiscuit (1949)
Horse trainer Shawn O'Hara and his lovely niece, Margaret, come to America to escape the memory of an accident involving Margaret's brother, Danny. Working with thoroughbreds in Kentucky, Shawn takes a liking to a yearling named Seabiscuit, and fights to convince the horse's owner that the tiny horse with big knees will become a top-notch racehorse. Meanwhile, Margaret begins a tentative relationship with jockey Ted Knowles, but is haunted by her brother's death in a steeplechase spill. Written by Ray Hamel
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A waste of 90 minutes of my life
A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.
There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.
The movie really just wants to entertain people.
Once upon a time in America, there was a very great Thoroughbred racehorse named Seabiscuit. He ran some remarkable races and is justly recalled as a truly great runner.A few years after Seabiscuit left the track, this incredibly terrible movie was made about him. It has little to do with the life and times of the real Seabiscuit, whose real story is more compelling than this dreadful, saccharine fiction.In the days when this movie was made, a lot of people in Hollywood were involved in racing, so it is hard to understand how NONE of them got racing right on the screen. All of the racing movies from this period are horrible, sentimental, inaccurate, and just plain bizarre. No one has to make up stories to make racing compelling, but Hollywood almost always does make up piles of syrupy manure to go into these films; the recent Seabiscuit is an exception, and got most everything ***right***.The Ruffian movie was a reeker (no, Ruffian was not a short-legged gelding...)and I dread the upcoming Secretariat movie will stink as well.Avoid this movie! It offends racing fans! It offends black Americans! It offends Chinese Americans! You have been warned! I gave the movie 2 stars because of the good condition of the newsreel footage of the real horse in action.
when the truth is so much more interesting, this movie was pretty much a waste of time. the real characters were also more interesting than these two dimensional characters. the only redeeming quality was the newsreel footage of some of the actual races. fortunately, the recent Laura Hillebrand book and the recent movie corrected some of the nonsense. in real life, the great Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons, Charles Howard, Tom Smith, and even Red Pollard were all much more interesting characters than those in this stinker. perhaps there were problems getting the rights to use the real names of real people who were alive at the time of filming. there is no doubt that Shirley Temple was very cute when they made this abomination, and probably was cuter than Red Pollard's own wife, the nurse. There was also no need to use such lame stereotypical characters for the non-white cast members. for a degenerate race track gambler like myself, the racing footage was worth enduring the rest of it.
It's hard to top the original. the original Seabiscuit was a favorite on the big show, the afternoon movie after school and homework and of course imparted that never-say-die values. its copy the 2003 version tries to use classical story telling techniques but wanders into a short and dry history of the depression.comparing the two versions, they both present tough people who overcome obstacles in their path but both miss the tenacity of Mrs Howard who was the prime motivator of the entire scheme.
A grown-up Shirley Temple is the only reason for interest in this weak horse story that is certainly not in the league with films like 'National Velvet' or 'My Friend Flicka'. Only interesting aspect is provided by Shirley Temple in one of her last films as a an adult actress, a nurse with bitter feelings about racing due to the death of a brother in the sport. She's pleasant enough, nicely photographed in technicolor and sporting an Irish brogue. Barry Fitzgerald provides a few amusing moments and Lon McCallister is on hand as a jockey who falls for Shirley--but tedium sets in early on and it never quite manages to pick up any steam for what is supposed to be a rousing finish. I caught this one on Turner Classic Movies when they had a tribute to Shirley's birthday and was impressed by her charm and assurance in a basically sub-standard role. Too bad the script didn't provide her and the others with more challenging material. It's a passable film and according to Shirley, did well enough at the box-office at time of release--probably due to her personal popularity.