Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

RyothChatty ridiculous rating

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

qatmom Once upon a time in America, there was a very great Thoroughbred racehorse named Seabiscuit. He ran some remarkable races and is justly recalled as a truly great runner.A few years after Seabiscuit left the track, this incredibly terrible movie was made about him. It has little to do with the life and times of the real Seabiscuit, whose real story is more compelling than this dreadful, saccharine fiction.In the days when this movie was made, a lot of people in Hollywood were involved in racing, so it is hard to understand how NONE of them got racing right on the screen. All of the racing movies from this period are horrible, sentimental, inaccurate, and just plain bizarre. No one has to make up stories to make racing compelling, but Hollywood almost always does make up piles of syrupy manure to go into these films; the recent Seabiscuit is an exception, and got most everything ***right***.The Ruffian movie was a reeker (no, Ruffian was not a short-legged gelding...)and I dread the upcoming Secretariat movie will stink as well.Avoid this movie! It offends racing fans! It offends black Americans! It offends Chinese Americans! You have been warned! I gave the movie 2 stars because of the good condition of the newsreel footage of the real horse in action.

midnighter89 Although it is a nice, warm, charming story/plot it is a let down considering. The fact that some of the main characters in this version are completely fictional (the O'Haras) bothered me throughout the entire movie.I did love that it had some actual B&W footage of some of Seabiscuit's races. And being a sucker for almost any animal movie (especially horses) I utterly enjoyed all the scenery and all the shots of the horses. The only reason I would watch this again is for that, not for the plot or the actors. But I'm fairly sure that this one is going to collect dust on my DVD shelf.If you are going to watch a movie about Seabiscuit, I advise to see the amazing 2003 version and skip this one.

david_weinstock when the truth is so much more interesting, this movie was pretty much a waste of time. the real characters were also more interesting than these two dimensional characters. the only redeeming quality was the newsreel footage of some of the actual races. fortunately, the recent Laura Hillebrand book and the recent movie corrected some of the nonsense. in real life, the great Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons, Charles Howard, Tom Smith, and even Red Pollard were all much more interesting characters than those in this stinker. perhaps there were problems getting the rights to use the real names of real people who were alive at the time of filming. there is no doubt that Shirley Temple was very cute when they made this abomination, and probably was cuter than Red Pollard's own wife, the nurse. There was also no need to use such lame stereotypical characters for the non-white cast members. for a degenerate race track gambler like myself, the racing footage was worth enduring the rest of it.

georgegolembiewski I loved watching this period piece about the great Seabiscuit. Theopening scene at the railroad station was shockingly racist. This clumsy attempt at humor was offensive to me as an American, but I must remember this was 1949. After this the movie shows some beautiful scenes of Kentucky horse country. The actor Lon MCallister seems awfully big for a jockey, but is a perfect love interest for young Shirley Temple who does a nice job in the role. The scene stealer is of course the inimitable Barry Fitzgerald who gives a predictably colorful performance as the oh so wise horse trainer. All in all a sanitized version of the real Seabiscuit story.