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# Seabiscuit a classic tale that will resonate with audiences
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/seabiscuit-a-classic-tale-that-will-resonate-with-audiences/
- Published: 2003-07-25T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T02:39:10.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Entertainment, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By Review by Dan Dunn*

There are a lot of similarities between the America the sad-sack principals of “Seabiscuit” inhabit and the one we’re living in now. In 1937, as in 2003, the economy was in the dumper, war loomed on the horizon, and the collective mood was suffused by a caliginous malaise. Then along came a horse — a bona fide underdog (they had Seabiscuit, we have Funny Cide) who galloped to the forefront of the Sport of Kings, capturing the imaginations of an entire nation en route to the winner’s circle.

Those similarities are precisely why, despite some shortcomings, “Sea-biscuit” will resonate with audiences and, more than likely, the Academy, who never met a sentimental piece of flag-waving populism they didn’t nominate. At its best, “Seabis-cuit” is a classic tale of the down and out — in this case, three men and a horse — overcoming the odds to realize the Impossible Dream. It’s a wish-fulfillment film that makes the heart swell with patriotic pride and nostalgia, while the head marvels at the depth and complexity of some truly wonderful performances.

In the wake of the stock market collapse of 1929, Johnny “Red” Pollard (Tobey Maguire), Charles Howard (Jeff Bridges) and Tom Smith (Chris Cooper) are three very broken men. Red loses his money and his parents, Howard buries his only son, and Smith longs for the open frontier that’s rapidly disappearing. Writer-director Gary Ross (who penned “Big,” “Dave” and “Pleasantville”) uses most of the film’s first hour to establish that these men have nowhere to go but up. While the set-up is longer than it needs to be, the payoff is well worth the wait. The movie sits “on the bit” until well into the second act, but once our heroes hitch their fates to Seabiscuit — an undersized mutt of a horse nobody else wanted — the movie suddenly sees the whip and breaks into an all-out sprint toward redemption.

Maguire is eminently likable as the oversized, underestimated jockey plucked from obscurity to ride Seabiscuit, but Bridges and Cooper steal the show with Oscar-worthy performances of understated virtuosity. William H. Macy shows up halfway through the film to provide comic relief as the Walter Mitty-esque radio announcer Tick-Tock McGlaughlin and helps keep “Seabis-cuit” from losing ground to its own excessive high-mindedness. And Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens (as George “The Iceman” Woolf) delivers an acting debut that will no doubt land him other plum roles after he decides to hang up his racing silks. (Rated PG-13 for some sexual situations and violent sports-related images. Running time: 140 minutes. Dan Dunn is a film critic for Metro International Newspapers.)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/072503-18_01.jpg)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 25, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/072503.pdf?ref=smdp.com)