Order this DVD from Amazon.com
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Seabiscuit
(Universal Studios Home Entertainment)
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| DVD
Release Date:
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December
16, 2003
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Length:
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141 mins.
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| Rated:
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PG
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| Format:
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Widescreen (2.35:1)
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Audio:
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5.1
Surround English, French 2.0 Dolby Surround
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| Subtitles:
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French, Spanish, English Captions
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| Extras:
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"Seabiscuit:
Racing Through History" Featurette, "Anatomy of a
Movie Moment" Featurette, "Photo Finish: Jeff Bridges'
On The Set Photographs", "Bringing the Legend to Life:
The Making of Seabiscuit" Featurette, Feature Commentary
with Director Gary Ross and Filmmaker Steven Soderbergh
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When I first saw the theatrical teaser
for Seabiscuit, at the end, I wanted to stand up and cheer. Nothing
gets me more pumped than a good teaser. I hadn't seen a teaser that I
enjoyed this much since Saving Private Ryan. With months to go before
the release, I was convinced Seabiscuit would be around at Oscar time.
And it was a good movie. Some might even consider it a great movie.
But, Oscar material? After seeing the final product, I'm not so sure
anymore. Maybe if it had been released in the November/December prime
Oscar period - we'll never know. But at this point, in the proverbial
horse race we call the Academy Awards, this horse may have fallen too
far behind that even Seabiscuit himself couldn't catch up.
As the story goes, Seabiscuit was a descendant of horse racing legend
Man 'O War, but after being deemed a poor breed, he was sold. His new
owner tried, without success, to beat him into racing shape. After
that, he was used to intentionally lose races against more successful
horses to help them build their confidence. Charles Howard (Jeff
Bridges) was equally beaten up. From humble beginnings, he rose
through the automobile industry to become one of the richest men in
America only to have his son die ironcally in a car accident. Tom
Smith (Chris Cooper) was a cowboy lost between two worlds - between
the pre and post-automobile age. Red Pollard (Tobey Maguire) was
defeated. Abandoned by his parents at the height of the Great
Depression, he was raised instead in the horse racing industry, having
to box between races for extra cash. He was once beaten so bad, he
lost his sight in one eye. And through this adversity, they all came
together to create one of the most heroic stories of the last century.
Before football, basketball or hockey - horse racing was one an
American past time. Most of us have heard of some famous horses. Man
O'War. Seattle Slew. Secretariat. But surprisingly, not too many have
heard of Seabiscuit, and I wonder why. Seabiscuit was the touted as
the biggest news story of 1938, beating out the likes of Adolf Hitler
and President Roosevelt. This horse - this story - is an American
legend, and I still can't believe that before this movie was made,
that so many people didn't know.
To help solidify the legend, Universal Studios Home Entertainment has
put together a pretty good DVD. Presented in 5.1 Surround with a great
2.35:1 widescreen transfer, the quality of the DVD is as good as you'd
expect. So too are the special features gathered together for the DVD
release.
First up is the featurette "Seabiscuit: Racing Through
History". Including insights from Laura Hillenbrand (author of
the book the movie is based on), historian David McCullouch (also the
film's narrator) and director Gary Ross, the featurette consists of
historical footage and footage from the film to try and bring the
story into historical perspetive. There's some fascinating info here
that's definitely worth checking out and it is a great complement to
the film.
Next up is the featurette titled "Anatomy of a Movie
Moment". We hear from director Gary Ross as he talks about his
preparation of different scenes from the movie - about how he sets up
the shooting plan and the shot lists - about how he puts emotion into
each shot. Ross has been a part of some pretty big films (Big, Dave,
Pleasantville) and it's nice to hear from the man behind these movies
to see what kind of preparation goes into the project to bring it to
the big screen.
"Photo Finish" is a collection of on-set photographs taken
by Jeff Bridges. With a brief intro by Bridges, we're treated to some
quality pics to the soundtrack of some behind-the-scenes audio. I've
always liked photo essays such as this one, I'm also a big fan of
features that are created from the perspective of the actors. So to
bring these two elements together, it created something really worth a
view.
No DVD would be complete without your standard "Making-of"
featurette - and it's no different here. Not that there is anything
wrong. It's great to hear from everyone involved about the making of
the film - and the nature of the film makes the feature rather
compelling. There's just nothing that really stands out here.
Similarly, we also get your standard cast/crew bios and the film's
production notes.
Finally, and probably the best thing about this disc aside from the
actual film, is the commentary from Gary Ross and Steven Soderbergh.
When I saw Soderbergh's name, I was puzzled because I didn't remember
seeing his name previously associated with the film. But, I guess he
took time out of his busy schedule to help out here, and we're all
lucky he did. Ross and Soderbergh give a running screen-specific
commentary that highlights the history of the story and the filmmaking
involved. The commentary runs with Soderbergh pointing out aspects of
the film with Ross commenting on each aspect. The two complement each
other very well, making this one of the finest commentaries I've ever
listened to.
One thing I wish this DVD had was a featurette detailing the
differences between the movie and the real life story. After looking
through the history books, there's actually a lot that isn't covered
in the film, such as the number of times the famous match race with
War Admiral was called off for one reason or another. Or the fact that
Charles Howard's son was 15 years old when he died. (The film makes
him out to be much younger.) Or that Howard had another son - and that
Howard married his son's sister-in-law, who was less than half his
age. (For a comprehensive look at the historical facts behind the
legend, check out PBS.org.)
Despite these and other historical inaccuracies, if you are at all
interested in this legend, this DVD is worth checking out. You could even go a step further and you
can get the 2-Disc
Collector's Set which is also available. I wish I had. Either
way, don't miss this movie. Even though the movie may not be around at
Oscar time, the story will be around forever, for the story itself is
timeless.
| The Movie: |
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8/10 |
| The
Extras: |
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8/10 |
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Seabiscuit
Liam Cullin -
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