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= film abt a plucky horse which beats all comers despite being weird-looking - so is therefore loved by the LITTLE GUY

it could not be more old-fashioned but actually i really enjoyed it (admittedly i went to a screening w.a friend who is a pushover for such movies as she totally identifies) (she also loves eight mile)

(it is based on a true story and makes quite a lot of its "buddy can you spare a dime" depression-era sensibility)

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 15 September 2003 14:06 (twenty-two years ago)

funnily enough the "true story" aspect made it more nerve-racking, as i did not KNOW the true story so thought the horse or rider might come a terrible cropper instead of winning (if it had been fiction i wd have known all wd be well)

(true stories that take the form of sappy melodramas - cf also "a beautiful mind" - are a curious hollywood compromise recently)

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 15 September 2003 14:08 (twenty-two years ago)

it was ok, but i think the print i saw was spliced with a ken burns documentary

― ryan (ryan), Monday, 15 September 2003 14:15 (twenty-two years ago)

the screening a saw had the director and toby mcguire doing a Q&A

apparently to ensure the realism of the actual races, without risking life and limb, the races were super-choreographed and the cast had rehearsed each race every day for six months, at first not on horses

ie they ran down the track like the knights in monty python and the holy grail i guess!!

(ken burns isn't such a pervasive turn-off in the uk)

― mary chesnut (mark s), Monday, 15 September 2003 14:19 (twenty-two years ago)

i really wish McDonald's had done a promotional sandwich "McSeabiscuit" for this movie. how gross would that have been?!Classic!

― Emilymv (Emilymv), Monday, 15 September 2003 14:22 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah i just dont know about the whole seabiscuit = the new deal thing going on. seemed a little forced (if not absurd!)

the movie hardly about the horse at all, and i'll be damned if any of the other characters were more interesting than the horse! (tho the jeff bridges character seemed impossibly generous and kind, i want to know if the real man was like that)

― ryan (ryan), Monday, 15 September 2003 14:23 (twenty-two years ago)

I liked it, it was a little sappy and old-fashioned but then so am I.

― Nicolars (Nicole), Monday, 15 September 2003 14:29 (twenty-two years ago)

well the point was that AT THE TIME ppl associated the horse with the new deal i think (little guy being given a chance etc etc)

the real jockey ended up an alcoholic horsewalker; the trainer was kicked out of the business after a trumped-up race-fixing scandal (acc. the Q&A: i haven't fact-checked their versions - but the historian who wrote the original book was an advisor on the film and in fact got to audition the directors...)

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 15 September 2003 14:29 (twenty-two years ago)

this is actually the only movie i remember having to walk outon since my mom was falling asleep and i was forced to take her home. i wasn't realy paying attention to start with, so didn't mind. and my mom loves horses!

― Vic (Vic), Monday, 15 September 2003 14:30 (twenty-two years ago)

has anyone read the book?

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 15 September 2003 14:32 (twenty-two years ago)

oh and did that one jockey REALLY slow down to give seabiscuit a chance to catch him and therefore give him the heart to WIN? if so i will see the movie again and cry because thats amazing (again tho it seems to fit SO WELL with the ND theme that i didnt buy it as historical fact)

the problem with all historical fiction is i just keep wondering "was it really like that?" and then it's all ruined as drama

― ryan (ryan), Monday, 15 September 2003 14:33 (twenty-two years ago)

I do want to see it anyway, because it's such a great story and it's all true - they've shown all of the "Seabiscuit" documentaries on tv here in the states.

I think a lot of Americans are so depressed now that they don't mind a little melodrama. At least I don't. Also, Seabiscuit beat the son of Man-O-War, go figure.

Also, Jeff Bridges is in it.

― Kerry (dymaxia), Monday, 15 September 2003 14:33 (twenty-two years ago)

i thought seabiscuit WAS the son of man-o-war? (out of "hard tack"!!)

(i wasn't taking notes but hearing the word ManoWar always makes me smile, for bad hair reasons)

i agree if it was just made up it would be tremendously lame (ditto a beautiful mind)

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 15 September 2003 14:39 (twenty-two years ago)

You're right - I checked it - Seabiscuit was the grandson of Man-o-War so War Admiral was his uncle.

― Kerry (dymaxia), Monday, 15 September 2003 14:47 (twenty-two years ago)

I picked up the book a couple of years ago after reading about Laura Hillenbrand, the author. Although I like horses, I wasn't sure that a biography of a horse could be that interesting. I found it to be very engrossing, however.

There was a documentary on Seabiscuit on PBS (An American Experience I think?) recently which was good as well. Even knowing the story, it was exciting to see the race footage and such.

I haven't seen the movie yet, but I hope to when it comes out on DVD.

― JuliaA (j_bdules), Monday, 15 September 2003 14:49 (twenty-two years ago)

It was pretty enjoyable, I thought, though man did it go on and on. Some solid corn (and the leads know how to do that stuff), but I felt sorry for Jeff Bridges' wife, who was such a sub-character.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Monday, 15 September 2003 15:59 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah i assumed she was going to have an affair w.toby maguire!!

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 15 September 2003 16:04 (twenty-two years ago)

She had nothing to do but smile

― s1utsky (slutsky), Monday, 15 September 2003 16:07 (twenty-two years ago)

(maybe that was her epitaph)

― s1utsky (slutsky), Monday, 15 September 2003 16:07 (twenty-two years ago)

presumably she was needed so you didn't think that plot-motor = jeff perving on toby

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 15 September 2003 16:11 (twenty-two years ago)

"The Coarse Whisperer"

― Andrew L (Andrew L), Monday, 15 September 2003 16:13 (twenty-two years ago)

That woulda been a better plot motor. Or maybe Bridges pervs> Cooper pervs> Maguire pervs> Seabiscuit pervs> Bridges etc.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Monday, 15 September 2003 16:16 (twenty-two years ago)

The trailers killed it for me. I couldn't see a movie where I'd have

Seabisuit!

rolling around my head for two hours.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Monday, 15 September 2003 16:49 (twenty-two years ago)

one month passes...

I saw this with my Mum and Dad at the weekend. I thought the first half hour of scene setting was really choppy and there were a few unnecessary scenes - did it really benefit from the inclusion of the "can I borrow ten bucks?" "Here, have twenty, son" bleurgh fest? But I did still enjoy it in a things to do with family on a Saturday night kind of way.

― Madchen (Madchen), Wednesday, 12 November 2003 15:33 (twenty-two years ago)

four months pass...

It was a movie for goodness sakes. I enjoyed it. It had a few areas that dragged a little and the charactors weren't top notch all the time but it had me sitting on the edge of my seat(while the horses were racing) and it made me smile. Lighten up a little. I've seen worse.

― Becky Gaines, Saturday, 13 March 2004 04:21 (twenty-two years ago)

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seabiscuit [SPOILERS PROB]

Seabisuit!