Seabiscuit (UK)
A long shot becomes a legend
Certificate: PG
Running Time: 135 mins
Retail Price: £19.99
Release Date:
Content Type: Movie
Synopsis:
A homeless jockey (Tobey Maguire), a millionaire (Jeff Bridges as Charles Howard), a washed-up cowboy (Chris Cooper) and a horse named Seabiscuit are the four unlikely heroes who found hope in each other during the Great Depression and inspired a nation. Seabiscuit is an exhilarating true sporting story about the power of hope and the courage to make dreams come true.
Special Features:
Audio commentary by director Gary Ross. Bringing The Legend To Life. Seabiscuit versus War Admiral. Anatomy of a Movie Moment.
Audio Tracks:
Dolby Digital 5.1 English
Subtitle Tracks:
English
CC: English
Directed By:
Gary Ross
Written By:
Gary Ross
Laura Hillenbrand
Starring:
William H. Macy
Gary Stevens
Elizabeth Banks
Tobey Maguire
Chris Cooper
Jeff Bridges
Distributor:
Touchstone Pictures
Your Opinions and Comments
A film about a racehorse. Would not be an immediate choice for me. Still not my decision this time!
The Plot
Hmm - well, its about a racehorse, and a jockey, and an owner.
Its based on a series of real events in the 1920`s and 1930`s.
A rich man employs an elderly ex-cowboy to pick and train a racehorse for him, and chooses a not-that-great jockey to ride it.
The horse takes some understanding, as does the jockey before they can become any use on the race track.
Eventually the horse begins to shine through against the odds, and starts to get noticed by the nation during the depression.
This ends up with them wanting to race against the current top horse in the U.S. but this takes a lot of getting to.
Then there is another whole story line after that.
Its a little confusing to begin with. I found the chopping and changing between characters a little difficult to follow until it settled down. I wasn`t sure who was with who, and where they were going.
The Visuals/Audio
All pretty good. Video is fine. Nothing too special on the audio but then its not really SFX heavy film - some good thundering hooves though.
The Extras
There is the real footage of the original race between Seabiscuit and War Admiral, which is faithfully reproduce in the film.
A commentary that I haven`t watched/listened to.
A featurette on the making of, which is pretty reasonable - showing how they filmed some of the close in horse work.
Summary
An interesting film, with some reasonable extras. Its quite a long film at 2:36 but after the initial confusion I found the time went by quite quickly.
Horses aren`t really my thing,but this was a good film.
The visuals are very well done. They really give you a realistic feel of the time. Apart from the editiing, the costumes and sets also add to this feel. The actual dvd picture is steady, clear and sharp. No noticable problems. The sound is excellent especially during the races. The background score is very good.
The is a good audio commentary and a decent making of featurette on the disc. The highlight of the extras has to be the actual footage, including commentary of the actual race between Seabiscuit and War Admiral. This reminded me that the movie I just saw is a true story.
This is a movie that more people need to see and get hold of. It wont win many awards but is brilliant all throughout. Tobey gives a great performance once again to show what a talented actor he is.