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      Seabiscuit

      2003, Drama, 2h 20m

      208 Reviews 100,000+ Ratings

      What to know

      Critics Consensus

      A life-affirming, if saccharine, epic treatment of a spirit-lifting figure in sports history. Read critic reviews

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      Seabiscuit (2003)

      Movie Info

      In the midst of the Great Depression, a businessman (Jeff Bridges) coping with the tragic death of his son, a jockey with a history of brutal injuries (Tobey Maguire) and a down-and-out horse trainer (Chris Cooper) team up to help Seabiscuit, a temperamental, undersized racehorse. At first the horse struggles to win, but eventually Seabiscuit becomes one of the most successful thoroughbreds of all time, and inspires a nation at a time when it needs it most.

      • Rating: PG-13

      • Genre: Drama

      • Original Language: English

      • Director: Gary Ross

      • Producer: Gary Ross, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, Jane Sindell

      • Writer: Gary Ross, Laura Hillenbrand

      • Release Date (Theaters):  wide

      • Release Date (Streaming):

      • Box Office (Gross USA): $120.1M

      • Runtime:

      • Distributor: Universal Pictures

      • Production Co: Kennedy/Marshall, Spyglass Entertainment

      • Sound Mix: Dolby SR, DTS, Dolby Stereo, Surround, SDDS, Dolby A, Dolby Digital

      • Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

      Cast & Crew

      Tobey Maguire
      Jeff Bridges
      Elizabeth Banks
      Gary Stevens
      William H. Macy
      Eddie Jones
      Ed Lauter
      Michael Angarano
      Annie Corley
      Gary Ross
      Gary Ross
      Gary Barber
      Roger Birnbaum
      Allison Thomas
      Robin Bissell
      Tobey Maguire
      John Schwartzman
      Jeanne Oppewall
      Judianna Makovsky
      Randy Newman

      News & Interviews for Seabiscuit

      Critic Reviews for Seabiscuit

      Audience Reviews for Seabiscuit

      • Mar 12, 2014

        Tobey Maguire tries his best to shrink down to the size of a jockey in this story of a legendary horse from the Depression. It's good but could have been a wee bit more compelling.

        Super Reviewer
      • Sep 18, 2012

        This is a well made film but there were some very small elements that bothered me. Although, if I may, Chris Cooper's performance is the best in the entire film. I wish the film was mainly about him. As for Seabiscuit, he is clearly just a race horse with a bit of a temper and with holding low esteem (until the three race men break the horse out of that zone) rather then a humane being just as that guy who walks Seabiscuit in the paddock is only a grooom and nothing more. Why couldn't the filmmakers give that actor at least one noteable performance? When he does talk you can hardly hear him. That's just wrong. Another scene I had a problem with is when families eat at a dinner table together you say GRACE! I was sort of offended when Tobey Maguire, Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper, and Elizabeth Banks just started eating without giving any thanks or praise. Believe me if you were living during The Great Depression, i'm sure non-believers must have done a little bit of prayer in the shadows hoping to for next evening's dinner meal. Gary Ross is a skilled filmmaker and I loved his Pleasantville then this. I haven't seen his film The Hunger Games where he would work again with Liz Banks, the trailer doesn't make me want to check out the picture.

        Super Reviewer
      • Jun 17, 2012

        This was one of those films where you just get wrapped up in it and you truly care for the characters. I enjoyed!

        Super Reviewer
      • Apr 20, 2012

        Before there was "The Hunger Games", Gary Ross was running with "Seabiscuit". Sounds like he really is hungry, what with all of the food-related titles. Well, maybe I'm looking too far into it, because a biscuit is anything but sweet, and as this film taught us, good ol' Gary Ross loves him some sweetness, almost as much as Tobey Maguire evidently wants to break away from the cutesy pretty boy image by running to films that he thinks are going to be manly, but only worsen his situation of being not so cool. First, he's hanging out with Hunter Thompson in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas", only to turn out to be a dorky wimp of a hitchhiker, then he gets a shot at being a superhero, only to come back as nerdy little Peter Parker, and now, he's involved in sports, only to come back a horse rider, which is pretty cheesy enough when it's not riddled with the kind of sweetness in this film. Yeah, I bet that you're thinking that this film couldn't possibly be that terribly cheesy, but come on, it's a late Depression-era sports drama that's centered around a horse, whose biographical book had the subtitle "An American Legend", so there's no way this film is going to get out without trying to manipulate you. Oh man, does that taint this film to no end; but hey, it still triumphs by the end. Still, no matter how much this film manages to reasonably work past some of its missteps, there's no way around the fact it makes too many trips along the track. Running a mere 141 minutes, this film isn't too much of the epic that it claims to be, and I emphasize that, not because the subject matter isn't sweeping, for it does have some degree of scope to it, but because this film is too tight for its own good. Even though it is a lot of style, "the" key aspect of an epic is substance, and while this film does have just enough to be considered a small epic, whether it be too much meditation on artistry or nothing more than just overly tight sequences, this film glosses over much exposition, while occasionally tacking on borderline manipulative resonance to unsubtley make up for a lack of development of investment. With all of this simplification and over meditation on pieces of underwritten and slightly stylized substance, the film has points where its storytelling is close-to that of a meditative film, and pulls that same trick, in the same fashion, over and over again during a fair deal of points in the film, making the film not only underdeveloped and sappy in certain regards, but kind of repetitive. Really, with all of the cheese and repetition, what might hurt this film the most is the fact that it just does not deliver as thoroughly as it should, in the way of story subtlety or exposition, being held back by the aforementioned missteps, as well as those blasted, montage-like, David McCullough-narrated timeline summary segments, which I don't simply not like, but just plain hate, as they're never not agonizingly forced, always add such inconsistency to the film's flow and, for a moment, strips the story of "all" subtlety, substance and humanity, momentarily rendering it more of an dull, unengaging documentary than a docu-drama. There's just so little to such a massive, layered story, with countless sweeping aspects going glossed over, understandably so, seeing as there's too much time spent on too many layers to this story as it is - to where the titular horse that this film should be centered around is a plot device for everyone else's subplots -, though you still walk away feeling some degree of dissatisfaction. The film genuinely tries, and that much is palpable, yet it ultimately fails on most every one of its ambitions, lacking sweep, uniqueness, consistency, subtlety and humanity, and substituting it all with repetition, a shortage of substance and plenty of manipulation, leaving it, at best, a medicore bore of failed potential. However, while the film can never restore that squandered potential, it, amazingly, transcends much of its mediocrity; maybe not to where the film really satisfies, as a whole, but still to where the film does, in fact, deliver in enough aspects for it to hold your attention. Randy Newman's score is among the most prominent tools of manipulation used by the film, yet it remains respectable, nevertheless. Sure, it has the cheese factor working against it, but this Newman score is still so very inspired, with soul, depth and sweep that draws your attention, even during the moments where it's being used to further dilute subtlety. Actually, as much as I complain about the film being so manipulative, unsubtle and flawed, I have to honestly say that, well, I have nowhere to go with this statement, because the manipulation, lack of subtlety and flaws are that intense; I just can't help but bring them up again. However, although they are there and ever so glaring, they never destroy the picture or even bring it down to a level of mediocrity, because what saves the film, all but by itself, is its charm, not just in its being so ambitious, but also in its having certain moments of snap in both its dialogue and sharp editing tricks that bubble off the script and really light up the screen, not simply keeping the film from getting too dull, but keeping the film rather engaging, because for every major misstep in the script, there's always some big punch of charm to win you back. For that, we not only have to give credit to Gary Ross' couple of directorial and writing successes, but also his performers, with the only discernable difference appearing to be the fact that Ross, unlike his performers, is still quite flawed in his contributions. Now, granted, although I'm deeming the performers flawless, I'm not at all deeming them masterful, because they don't have enough material to play up or mess up, and are mostly asked to simply be charming, but in that regard, they really deliver. However, when the deeper stuff does come into play, our performers - especially Tobey Maguire - play it straight, with emotion and power in their presence so strong and assured that it almost cuts through the manipulation of those emotional moments and, doesn't necessarily summon huge amounts of emotion, but still touch enough for you to feel the resonance, even with the faults in atmosphere, and find even the emotionally manipulative parts rather winning, which isn't to say that the rest of the film, while still just as faulty, doesn't still keep you going with its charm and talents. At the end of the race, the film's legs go hit pretty hard by the absurd lack of subtlety and human substance that could have presented more sweep and exposition, while manipulative emotion and genericism render it hardly unique, from a story standpoint, and borderline mediocre, yet it still manages to regain its footing and charge on, carried by Randy Newman's spirited score, as well a deeply charming atmosphere and performances, ultimately leaving "Seabiscuit" to stand as a generally entertaining portrait on the legend on the track, even if it does squander potential. 2.5/5 - Fair

        Super Reviewer

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