Seabiscuit is about a surprisingly small horse that had crooked legs, and was considered a bad-racing horse, and how he became America’s lift during the great depression by making a comeback that no one even imagined was possible. The horse was ridden by a jockey, Red Pollard, who was half-blind and didn’t win any races before Seabiscuit.
A man named Charles Howard bought the horse after going through a tragic loss of his son and divorcing his wife. He originally owned a bicycle shop then afterwards was an automobile entrepreneur and didn’t believe in horses before his son died.Afterwards he met Marcela, who helped him get over his losses through horseback riding. He married her, and they decided to buy a racing horse.
As they were trying to find a trainer, Charles met Tom Smith. Tom wasn’t a professional by any means, and others made fun of him. Charles saw Tom as an honest man and decided to hire him as his trainer. As they started looking for horses, Tom said that it wasn’t about showing off a quick horse but getting a horse that has heart.
That’s when they found Seabiscuit. Seabiscuit was considered a bad-racing horse at the time, and they used him to help train the other horses.After Charles bought him, they noticed that Red had a lot in common with the horse, and put the two together. They made a great team and after a lot of training they began winning the races.
Before the “match of the century” who was Seabiscuit vs. War Admiral (a much bigger horse known in the east) Red got in an accident when he was riding a horse. The accident made him not able to ride anymore and they had to replace him for the big match. Seabiscuit won the match, but the next race he hurt his legs making him lame.
Eventually Red started training him again and he was able to race.Together they blew the nation away winning after both of them were said to be unable to ride. Seabiscuit and Red turned out to be an inspiration to America during such a hard time. I found that the corresponding historical events were almost identical.
Everything from Charles Howard being an automobile entrepreneur, to Seabiscuit having the “match of the century” with War Admiral was in the movie as well as in real life. I was very surprised to find out how much was true. As I was reading the article I was sure to find out many fabrications in the movie that didn’t happen in real life.When I didn’t I was shocked because I thought that maybe Red didn’t get hurt, or War Admiral was a made-up character to make it more dramatic.
There were a few historical details which were a little off but other than that the events that happened in the movie were all pretty much true. A truth in the movie was that Charles Howard really did own a bicycle shop before he made a fortune on automobiles. Another, very interesting, fact was that Seabiscuit wore identical uniforms in the movie and in real life. The last little fact I found out was that Red Pollard was really half-blind.
It was surprisingly wasn’t that hard to find things that didn’t correspond with the movie. One of these things was that Red Pollard, in real life was older than that of the role played by Tobey Maguire. Also, in the movie Red and his family were originally from and resided in the US. This isn’t true.
They were from Edmonton, Alberta. His family did fall upon hard times, but not because of the depression. They lost their brick factory business as the result of a flood.Their insurance didn’t cover enough of the damages.
A friend of the family was coming to the U. S. and brought Red Pollard with him. And unlike in the movie where his parents left him on a racetrack, it was the family friend that deserted him on a racetrack in Montana.
Another false story in the movie is how Charles met his second wife, Marcela. Marcela was the older sister of Charles Howard’s son’s wife. Red Pollard had a wife, Angus. She was his nurse during his recovery after he shattered his leg.
The movie unfortunately omitted Agnes, who did play a significant part in Pollard’s recovery and return to the track.It was actually Agnes who hung the medal of Saint Christopher around Pollard’s neck for good luck on the day of Seabiscuit’s last race, not Charles Howard’s wife. I would defiantly recommend this movie to pretty much everyone. It was a historical event, which was part of raising spirits during the depression.
It was cool to see how a little horse could give America so much hope in a crucial time of need. The only thing that I didn’t particularly like was all the in the ring horse-riding action scenes. I don’t need to see the jockey’s rear-ends that close up.Other than that I thought that this movie was interesting and didn’t turn the past into fiction.
It was even rumored that Seabiscuit got more media than Adolf Hitler. The only genre of people that I would not recommend it to is kids less than 13 years old. I don’t think they’d be able to appreciate this movie. This movie is very inspirational, sending a message of “anything can happen” and pretty much the same message that The Little Engine that could gives off.
If you’re looking for a good inspirational movie, this one is for you.
