Half a success, Seabiscuit is full of stuff to admire but little to really care about.
Seabiscuit (2003)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:197
Fresh:152
Rotten:45
Average Rating:7.1/10
Consensus: A life-affirming, if saccharine, epic treatment of a spirit-lifting figure in sports history.
Runtime: 2 hrs 21 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: You don't throw a whole life away just 'cause it's banged up a little. It is a story that inspired a nation…and one that almost didn't happen. It is the story of a country whose dreams had... You don't throw a whole life away just 'cause it's banged up a little. It is a story that inspired a nation…and one that almost didn't happen. It is the story of a country whose dreams had been shattered…and the people who found a hero in an average horse that could achieve the unthinkable. It is the story of three lost men-Johnny "Red" Pollard (TOBEY MAGUIRE), a young man whose spirit had been broken; Charles Howard (four-time Oscar® nominee JEFF BRIDGES), a millionaire who lost everything; and Tom Smith (Academy Award® winner CHRIS COOPER), a cowboy whose world was vanishing-who found each other and discovered hope in an unlikely place. The odds were incredible. The dream was impossible… And somehow, it actually happened. From Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker GARY ROSS (Pleasantville, Dave) comes the motion picture adaptation of the story that transfixed a nation from one of the most beloved and widely-read non-fiction books of the past decade: Seabiscuit. To film the tale of the down-and-out racehorse that took the entire nation on the ride of a lifetime, screenwriter/director/producer Ross has assembled an impressive list of seasoned and accomplished filmmaking talent, both in front of and behind the camera. Joining Maguire, Bridges and Cooper in the cast are ELIZABETH BANKS (Catch Me If You Can, Spider-Man) as Marcela Howard, Charles Howard's wife; Hall of Fame Jockey GARY STEVENS (in his motion picture debut) as George "The Iceman" Woolf; and Academy Award® nominee WILLIAM H. MACY (Fargo, Boogie Nights) as reporter "Tick-Tock" McGlaughlin. Producing, along with Gary Ross, are prolific and Oscar®-nominated filmmakers KATHLEEN KENNEDY (A.I. Artificial Intelligence, The Sixth Sense) and FRANK MARSHALL (Signs, The Bourne Identity), and JANE SINDELL. The film is based on the best-selling book by LAURA HILLENBRAND. GARY BARBER (Bruce Almighty, Shanghai Knights), ROGER BIRNBAUM (Bruce Almighty, The Recruit), the film's Tobey Maguire, ALLISON THOMAS (Pleasantville) and ROBIN BISSELL (Pleasantville) serve as executive producers. Collaborating with Ross to re-create the world of the first decades of the 20th Century are director of photography JOHN SCHWARTZMAN, A.S.C. (The Rookie, Armageddon); two-time Oscar®-nominated production designer JEANNINE OPPEWALL (L.A. Confidential, Pleasantville); Academy Award®-nominated film editor WILLIAM GOLDENBERG, A.C.E. (Ali, The Insider); double Oscar®-nominated costume designer JUDIANNA MAKOVSKY (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Pleasantville); and Academy Award®-winning composer RANDY NEWMAN (Monsters, Inc., Toy Story). [More]
Starring: Tobey Maguire, Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper, Elizabeth Banks
Starring: Tobey Maguire, Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper, Elizabeth Banks, Gary Stevens, William H. Macy
Director: Gary Ross
Director: Gary Ross
Screenwriter: Gary Ross
Producer: Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, Gary Ross, Jane Sindell
Composer: Randy Newman
Studio: Universal Pictures
Reviews for Seabiscuit
I had thought it was FDR, rather than Seabiscuit, that pulled America up from the depths of depression.
In the structure of his screenplay Ross has taken a risk, and he has not quite brought it off.
There's no escaping the fact while watching it that we're essentially watching the story of an icon founded out of PR hype.
Before Seabiscuit hits the homestretch ... the movie slogs through some mud, weighed down by a filmmaker who doesn't quite trust the horse carrying his colors.
You could have just as easily substituted in any random NASCAR, or even Lance Armstrong's bicycle and achieved the same result.
Unfortunately, too much of Seabiscuit forces its ideas on us, rather than allowing us to discover them for ourselves.
A triumph of a movie – one that, despite a certain historical and emotional gloss, we can only hope gives us as real an account of horseracing as it appears.
Gary Ross' work is skilled and sublime from almost all angles, transcending a sporting drama into a multifaceted film that enthralls and captivates.
Gary Ross' work is skilled and sublime from almost all angles, transcending a sporting drama into a multifaceted film that enthralls and captivates.
The film celebrates old-time American value, such as loyalty, honestly, perseverance. Sure it's about winning, but winning the right way.
For all its promise and hype, "Seabiscuit" is unfortunately little more than a sugar cube of good intentions undermined by a saccharine aftertaste.
There’s something else going on besides the usual Oscar-baiting, triumph-of-the-human-and-equine-spirit shrink-wrapped Gourmet Film.
[Seabiscuit] clicks on all cylinders as a technical achievement in re-creating a piece of racetrack history, though its larger sociological statements are more than a little overblown and oversimplified.
Solid storytelling (if a little too slick and calculated) guaranteed to generate a lump in one's throat.
Audiences young and old are likely to luxuriate in the opportunity of spending a couple of summer hours in the company of kinder, gentler moviegoing fare.
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