Jeremy’s Tophunder №85: Seabiscuit
When I started this project, I had a list of almost 300 movies. I just tried to write down every movie I could think of that I had seen multiple times (or had seen only once, but loved). As I started to cull the list down, it was easy to figure out which movies would get into the Top 10 (or close), but it was difficult to figure out which movies would populate the bottom end of the list.
I decided that I would set myself a cut-off point. I would put a movie on the list at №100, and any movie that I considered after that, I would weigh whether or not I liked it better than №100.
On my first draft, Seabiscuit was №100. I’ve asked myself many, many times “Do I like this movie more than Seabiscuit?” As I went through multiple drafts of the list, Seabiscuit eventually found its way up to №85.
I can actually tell you exactly where I was when I saw Seabiscuit the first time. I was a freshman in high school, and it was the day before the swim team’s league championship meet. We were finished with our training and taper, and the coach decided instead of just farting around in the pool for a few hours, we would watch an inspiring sports movie instead.
I remember liking it a lot the first time I saw it, but I remember being confused for the first half hour or so. For whatever reason, I conflated Seabiscuit with Secretariat and/or Seattle Slew, two Triple Crown-winning horses from the 1970s, so I thought it was weird that the movie was starting during the Great Depression. When I finally figured out what was going on though, I remember being enthralled.
It really is an incredible story. All four major characters in the story (the horse, the jockey, the trainer, and the owner) were all written off or dismissed for various reasons at some point or another, but they managed to persevere and go on to win some of the most prestigious races in America.
A few years later, I read the book that the movie was based on, and I loved the book even more. Obviously, the book goes into much greater detail than the movie is able to, and provides a great deal of historical context. (The book also has a whole chapter about the insane physical toll that was taken by jockeys during that time period, and I find it hard to believe that anyone could read that chapter and walk away without thinking that jockeys are among the best pound-for-pound athletes on the planet.)
Three pieces of context that the movie doesn’t quite hit (but thankfully the book does):
- The concept of “handicap” racing. In a race like the Kentucky Derby, for example, every horse is three years old, and every horse carries 126 pounds (between jockey, equipment, and weights in the saddle). In a handicap race, horses are assigned imposts based on how fast they’re expected to run. Seabiscuit, during most of his career, was saddled with 130 pounds or more, often 20 pounds more than some of the other horses in the race. Although an inexact science, the common thought is that one pound of weight will slow a horse by one length over one mile. So, for example, when Seabiscuit raced the Bay Meadows Handicap in 1938 carrying 133 pounds, and beat Gossum (carrying 113 pounds) by three lengths, you can infer that Seabiscuit was actually 23 lengths faster than Gossum that day. -That’s- how good Seabiscuit was.
- The match race between War Admiral and Seabiscuit didn’t just happen. In fact, there were three different races scheduled in 1937 and 1938, but one horse or the other was scratched from each (either due to injury or poor track conditions). When the two horses finally met in the fall of 1938, it was a race that was several years in the making.
- The Santa Anita handicap wasn’t just a race with a big purse. In fact, the race pre-dates the Seabiscuit/War Admiral Rivalry (not, as the movie claims, an idea to get the two horses together), and was widely considered to be the most prestigious race on the west coast. Seabiscuit lost in 1937 (as depicted in the movie), lost again in 1938 (to a horse carrying 30 pounds less), was injured in 1939 and assumed in retirement (again, as depicted in the movie), before recovering and coming back to win in 1940. Furthermore, Seabiscuit won in 1940 at seven years old, quite old for a racehorse (comparable to a human in their late 30s or early 40s). In the 85-year history of the race, only nine winners have been seven years or older.
Regardless, the movie does a really fantastic job of summarizing the story of Seabiscuit and the three people that came together around him. Every time I re-watch it, I’m a bit conflicted about how much time they take to introduce each character. While I think it’s great that they make a point to develop each person’s backstory (because each of those backstories are important, and that level of detail is something I love about the book), it’s a bit frustrating that the titular character isn’t introduced until 45 minutes into the movie, and the signature moments of the team’s career don’t come until about 70 minutes in. It’s certainly a slow burn.
That being said, the payoff is worth it. The racing sequences are spectacular, particularly the sound, and how close to the horses they were able to make you feel. The sequence early-ish in the movie, depicting the bush league racing that Red Pollard (played by Tobey Maguire) cut his teeth in early in his career, is perhaps my favorite. Two jockeys opening whaling on each other, fighting for position.
The races in the movie were choreographed by director Gary Ross and former jockey Chris McCarron. Overall, they employed over 50 different horses (including eight different Seabiscuits), and more than 10 active jockeys to ride them during filming. The choreography was so specific, it might as well have been a ballet sequence. Through multiple weeks of rehearsals, the production crew gradually got the cameras closer and closer to the horses (so as not to spook them), until eventually they were only a few feet away from them during filming.
The acting in the movie is mostly good — no glaring weaknesses. I’m never a huge Tobey Maguire fan but he’s pretty good here. Chris Cooper is probably the high point (as trainer Tom Smith), and William H. Macy as the wacky radio announcer (not adapted from the book at all) is good for a laugh or two.
Where the movie really makes its hay, however, are the racing sequences (already covered) and the storyline once the team is assembled. It’s impossible to not get invested, even if Jeff Bridges’ character (owner Charles Howard) is pretty campy.
As horse racing movies go, Seabiscuit is probably the high point. Secretariat (from 2010) was fine, but felt a little too Disney-y, and the other ones that popped up when I Googled “horse racing movies” look so terrible as to not even warrant mention. I’m not a huge horse racing fan by any stretch of the imagination, but I enjoy it enough that I’m glad there’s a well-done movie that captures that world. And of course, the book remains one of my favorite books, and I highly recommend it. The movie, on par, doesn’t quite live up to the book, but it’s still good enough that I knew it was an auto-include on my list. It started as №100, and managed to climb it’s way up to №85.
(For a refresher on the project, I introduced it in a Facebook Post on Day 1)
Here’s our progress on the list so far:
6. The Fugitive
17. Ocean’s 11
24. Apollo 13
47. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
85. Seabiscuit
93. The Truman Show
