Seabiscuit; The Story of Seabiscuit

After rupturing a suspensory ligament in a prep race in February 1939, Depression-era wonder horse Seabiscuit (dubbed a "masterpiece of faulty construction") was considered finished. But the Biscuit would not only return on March 2, 1940 to race in a contest he had lost twice before--the Santa Anita Handicap (dubbed the "hundred grander" for its comparatively whopping purse)--he would also be ridden by an old friend named Red Pollard, a half-blind jockey with a shattered leg who was told that he would never ride again. Underdog (or horse) stories just don't get any better. Based on Laura Hillenbrand's bestselling book Seabiscuit: An American Legend (and released to tie in with Universal's feature film Seabiscuit starring Tobey Maguire, Chris Cooper, and Jeff Bridges), director Stephen Ives' modest but engaging documentary, which originally aired on PBS's The American Experience, combines solid narration by actor Scott Glenn, interviews (with Hillenbrand, Pollard's daughter, sportscaster Jack Whitaker, and others), and thrilling archival footage of the Biscuit in action, to limn an extraordinary tale of the little horse that could, purchased by Charles Howard in 1936 and trained by the taciturn Tom Smith, who saw something in the thoroughbred that no one else noticed: a potential superstar. DVD extras include an interview with Ives, and a gallery featuring 10 "superhorses." Definitely recommended. Aud: H, C, P. .David Butler's 1949 The Story of Seabiscuit is loosely based on the life of the famed racehorse (Hillenbrand said that "Hollywood…deleted everything interesting, and made an inexcusably bad movie"). Trading in the real tightlipped Western horse trainer Tom Smith for the fictitious garrulous Irish horse trainer Shawn O'Hara (Barry Fitzgerald with laid-on brogue and a tiresome twinkle in the eye), the real red-haired jockey Red Pollard for the fictitious black-haired jockey Ted Knowles (Lon McCallister), and Pollard's real wife/nurse Agnes Conlon for the fictitious wife/nurse/O'Hara niece Margaret (Shirley Temple), the film at least captures some of Seabiscuit's racing highlights (Seabiscuit is played by one of his sons, though for the legendary match race between the Biscuit and War Admiral, actual archival footage is used). Not only is the central story--the romance between Temple and McCallister--dull as dishwater, the film's period-stereotypical portraits of African American and Chinese domestic help (not to mention the "Irish" leads) are absolutely wince-producing. Other than Shirley Temple completists or Seabiscuit fanatics, I'm not sure who the audience is for this middling film. Boasting a reasonably handsome transfer and serviceable Dolby Digital mono sound, the disc also features the nine-minute behind-the-racecourse-scenes featurette "A Day at Hollywood Park." Not a necessary purchase. Aud: P. (R. Pitman)