Not everyone likes the new movie Seabiscuit—this bird criticizes it as too white–but I did. It’s the story of the Depression-era triumph of an underdog racehorse, which did indeed rivet the country.
I’ll admit to being biased towards horses (my daughter rides), and although there isn’t a surfeit of great acting, the photography is terrific (best ever of horseracing) and the production values are extraordinary. Note to Jeff Tucker–the clothes are up to your standards.
Ideologically, it is a little off with talk of men being disheartened by the Fed’s Great Depression–true enough!–and only cured by the New Deal.
Court historian David McCullough tells us in a voice over (and what evocative photographs he talks over) that “call it the NRA, the WPA, or just Relief, finally people knew someone cared”: the beaming Franklin and his leviathan.
Yes, that cold, cruel monster the state cared, especially the NRA, Franklin’s fascist central. Franklin cared enough to enslave and kill the unemployed in his war.
Some bad language and a couple of short scenes that should have been cut (to make it PG rather than PG13), but overall very much worth seeing. When was the last time a movie portrayed a wealthy businessman (Seabiscuit’s owner, played by Jeff Bridges) as an unalloyed good guy?
Go see it, and then sign up for the sequel, Burt Blumert’s Day at the Races.
2:17 pm on July 26, 2003
