Seabiscuit - The Memorable TV DVD Review

Distributor: Buena Vista Home Entertainment | 134 mins
Certificate: G
Director: Gary Ross
Soundtrack: Randy Newman
Cast: Tobey Maguire, Jeff Bridges, William H. Macy
Extras: Yes

Without question one of America ’s most famous race horses Seabiscuit was a legend of the turf back in the days of the great depression.

Although based on the true story of Seabiscuit the movie also heavily uses the novel written by Laura Hillenbrand to tell its story. Basically a story of belief and how a trio of men triumphed against all manner of adversities to take Seabiscuit to the top.

Tobey Maguire heads up the cast as jockey Red Pollard who is determined to ride Seabiscuit in the race of the century, Jeff Bridges is the owner of Seabiscuit Charles Howard who uses his involvement with the horse to banish the memories of losing his son whilst Chris Cooper is trainer Tom Smith out to push the horse and Maguire to the very edge of their limits.

Despite some overly sentimental moments Seabiscuit is very entertaining, carrying with it the feel of a 1940’s classic Golden Age of Hollywood movie, almost the kind of movie they supposedly don’t make anymore and definitely a good movie all the family can watch.

EXTRAS: An audio commentary with director Gary Ross and fellow film maker Steven Soderbergh, of course given the calibre of Soderbergh’s films and his knowledge of the film making process this makes for an enjoyable commentary; Bringing The Legend to Life, The Making of Seabiscuit is a 15 minute featurette which whilst the usual homogenised stuff still contains much of interest; Anatomy of a movie moment is a 5 minute breakdown by Gary Ross of a pivotal car crash scene in the movie and finally there is the original 1938 “race of the century”. Truly vintage stuff.