Seabiscuit parents guide

Seabiscuit Parent Guide

Overall B+

A belief in second chances is the reason Charles Howard (Jeff Bridges), a business man with a turbulent past, agrees to invests in a gangly horse named Seabiscuit, who is trained by an out-of-work mustang breaker (Chris Cooper) and ridden by an oversized former boxer with a blinded eye (Tobey Maguire). Based on a true story, this team of misfits gives a reason to hope to an entire nation facing The Great Depression.

Release date July 25, 2003

Violence C+
Sexual Content C
Profanity C
Substance Use C+

Why is Seabiscuit rated PG-13? The MPAA rated Seabiscuit PG-13 for some sexual situations and violent sports related images.

Run Time: 141 minutes

Official Movie Site

Parent Movie Review

Charles Howard (Jeff Bridges) is a man who believes in second chances. Lucky for him, because life deals this smooth-tongued entrepreneur one bad hand after another. Despite his consummate skills as a salesman, he can’t talk his way out of the devastating results of a serious car accident, a strained marriage or the financial woes of the Depression. It is solely his faith in the future that keeps him going.

After the business market stalls, Charles, a car lot owner, and his wife, Marcela (Elizabeth Banks), decide to invest in racehorses. But putting together a stable of good racing stock, first-rate trainers and capable jockeys on the California coastline proves to be a challenge even for the optimist.

Scouring the options for a trainer, he finds Tom Smith (Chris Cooper), a weathered mustang breaker with loads of horse sense literally camped out in the bush behind the barns. Later Red Pollard (Tobey Maguire), a feisty former boxer with emotional scars and a blind spot, joins them as a jockey. But Charles takes on his biggest reclamation project when he lets Tom talk him into buying an ugly, abused colt whose awkward gait and nasty disposition make his present owner eager to be rid of him.

Tempered by Tom’s gentle hands and unusual schooling methods, Seabiscuit soon embarks on a racing career. Entering one event after another, the undersized horse with the oversized rider begins to make track history that amazes even jaded journalists and a world-weary radio announcer (William H. Macy) who has to eat crow when the long shot wins his first race. But beating the ponies in the West is only a warm up to facing the blue-blooded Thoroughbreds of the East Cost racing establishment and their top-rated runner, War Admiral.

Based on the true-life events of the 1938 Horse of the Year, the film initially jumps from one storyline to another in an attempt to introduce all the characters. Once it settles down, the script contains scenes of cigarette and alcohol use by numerous characters including a soused jockey. Verbal outbursts between owners and stable hands frequently include profanities and athletes are subjected to racing related injuries and beatings. One scene reveals prostitutes in lacy underwear and brief back nudity along with some bawdy behavior when the riders visit a brothel in a Mexican border town.

However, aside from these moments of content concern that blight the film, Seabiscuit is a beautifully shot feel-good story of redemption that will engage most horse loving teens and their parents. During an era when the whole country longed for a return to better days, this unremarkable horse’s astonishing rise to fame lent hope to the downtrodden and discouraged. It gave the country something to cheer about in a time when almost everyone could use a second chance.

Directed by Gary Ross. Starring Jeff Bridges, Tobey Maguire, Chris Cooper. Running time: 141 minutes. Theatrical release July 25, 2003. Updated

Seabiscuit Parents' Guide

Despite the meager conditions many families lived in during the Depression, some people still found money to spend on gambling and horse races. How important was entertainment and escapism in the lives of people in those desperate conditions? Does that hold true for people suffering from economic difficulties in the present?

Charles seems to see potential in others despite the current state of their lives. How did the characters in this film come together and help each other become better?

For more information on the history of this amazing racehorse, check out the book by Laura Hillenbrand on which this film was based, Seabiscuit: An American Legend.

Charles Howard isn’t the only one who liked to disassemble cars in his garage. Take a peek at this perpetual motion ad for Honda that is currently running in the UK:
http://home.attbi.com/~bernhard36/honda-ad.html.

Home Video

The most recent home video release of Seabiscuit movie is December 16, 2003. Here are some details…

Seabiscuit releases to DVD on December 16, 2003 in either full or wide screen versions. Both editions offer the following bonus extras:

- Seabiscuit: Racing Through History

-Bringing the Legend to Life: The Making of Seabiscuit

-Anatomy of a Movie Moment: From Script to Screen

- Photo Finish: Jeff Bridges’s on-set photographs

Seabiscuit releases to Blu-ray on May 26, 2009.

Related home video titles:

Virginia’s Run, the story about a teenaged girl and her horse, offers a racing story aimed at younger equestrians. Jeff Bridges plays an entrepreneur who dreams of revolutionizing the car industry in Tucker: The Man and His Dream. Before losing 25 pounds for his role as a jockey, Tobey Maguire bulked up to take on the role of a superhero in Spider-Man. Leaving the horses behind, Chris Cooper takes a part in October Sky, a story about students whose love of rockets gives them the boost they need to pursue a different future than what they’ll find in their mining town.

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