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Like every truly great sports film, Seabiscuit isn't primarily about sport at all: it's a tale of underdogs overcoming adversity, giving people (and animals) a second chance, and not letting bad luck grind you down. And it contains four of the finest performances you'll see all year.
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The reason why the real racehorse Seabiscuit caught the imagination of the American public in the Depression era was that he was an undersized, bad-tempered, not particularly handsome horse that was keener on eating and sleeping than racing. He was written off as a loser by two trainers, but became a champion thanks to three men, all in their different ways making a comeback after terrible reverses.
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One was jockey Johnny "Red" Pollard (Tobey Maguire from Spiderman), an intelligent but aggressive part-time boxer whose spirit had seemingly been broken by his family losing everything in the Wall Street Crash.
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The second was embittered, washed-up horse trainer Tom Smith (Chris Cooper from Adaptation), who had seen his wild west lifestyle disappear with the advent of the motor car.
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The third was flamboyant businessman Charles Howard (Jeff Bridges from The Fabulous Baker Boys) a charismatic car dealer who had lost his millions, his son and his wife but still had an eye for talent and determination, and a self-deprecating charm that made him an instant hit with the public.
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As Bridges puts it with a happy beam on his face, "Our horse is too small, our jockey is too tall, our trainer is too old… and I'm too dumb to tell the difference!"
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All three of these excellent actors give performances that are as likeable, subtle and multi-faceted as any they have achieved. A fourth top-quality performance is given by the great character actor William H. Macy as a motormouth radio commentator who brings comic relief to the film just when it's in danger of becoming a little too emotional.
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The picture has the old-fashioned virtues you would associate with the Golden Age of Hollywood: characters it's impossible not to root for; an emotive story that gives you everything you want but not quite in the way you might anticipate; a big, stirring score in the style of Aaron Copland (by the splendidly versatile Randy Newman); and enough social and political background to make you appreciate that the true hero of the movie is not jut one horse, nor the men who saved it from the knacker's yard, but America itself - here celebrated with a welcome lack of post-modernist irony as the greatest land of opportunity that the world has ever seen.
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The fact that writer-director Gary Ross can put his patriotic, slightly left-of-centre message across without indulging in offensive flag-waving or mawkish sentiment makes this a film that everyone who isn't a paid-up member of Al Quaeda should enjoy. Ross has fulfilled the promise he showed as the screenwriter of Big and Dave. I'm confident, too, that Seabiscuit will be remembered at Oscar time. Like the horse, this movie will be hard to beat.
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As a sports movie that will entrance people with absolutely no interest in sport, I'd rate it on the very highest level alongside Field of Dreams (about baseball), Rocky (boxing), The Hustler (pool) and the great basketball documentary Hoop Dreams.
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It's a crowd-pleaser, but it doesn't patronise its audience; and John Schwartzman's cinematography is sensational - the best I have seen at transmitting the excitement and danger of horse racing. You feel you're right in there, among the horses and galloping as though your life depends upon it.
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I went in with lowish expectations, imagining this would be a superior children's film, along the lines of Black Beauty or Free Willy; but it's much better than that. This is one of the great mythic tales about the making of America. Even though it's two hours twenty minutes long, it never drags for a second. And the extraordinary thing is that, in essence, it's all true.
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, Charles Howard: Jeff Bridges 
