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SEABISCUIT by Tom McCurrie
I said it before and I'll say it again -- moviegoers love underdogs. They first remind us of our own troubles, then show us we can lick them if we put our mind to it. SEABISCUIT follows in that tradition, but not near as well as it could have.
(Warning: Spoilers Ahead!)
SEABISCUIT has not one, but two underdogs going for it: a small, badly-treated, poorly-trained horse (Seabiscuit) and a tall, one-eyed jockey (Tobey Maguire) with a temper worse than Uday Hussein's. With twice the number of "dogs" to root for, the movie has twice the emotional punch. It also has some of the most evocative Depression-era atmosphere in memory.
Too bad the script by Gary Ross doesn't live up to it. For one thing, it's overlong by at least a half-hour. Much of this time is spent setting up non-underdogs like Jeff Bridges and Chris Cooper. This takes the focus away from our leads -- I mean, it takes 45 minutes just to get to the horse.
But maybe Bridges and Cooper are underdogs, too. Then again, maybe not. Bridges overcomes his problem (his son's tragic death) before we even get to Seabiscuit. He marries an endlessly supportive (and thoroughly one-dimensional) woman, then devotes his life to horses. With his arc completed, he ceases to be of interest dramatically. (Remaining filthy rich through the Depression doesn't make him an underdog, either.) Bridges does fear for Tobey when he rides injured (shades of his son), but this is so late in the game it comes across as completely unmotivated. The writer should have played up the father-son thing much more with these guys. (Bridges handing Tobey a twenty instead of a ten spot when he asks for some dough isn't enough.) And what obstacle is Cooper trying to overcome? He seems bummed over the closing of the West, and he likes to care for horses, but other than that he seems fairly content -- not exactly underdog material. He has no arc, and thus no dimension. He carries the same calm, cool and collected expression from beginning to end. Even when he gets mad at Tobey for riding one-eyed, the conflict is soon dropped. Truth be told, Bridges and Cooper's characters are sorely underwritten, soon fading into the background as the story proceeds. After all, Tobey and Seabiscuit have the stronger arcs, going from mad at the world to success (and self-love) through racing.
SEABISCUIT is problematic in other ways. A competing horse named War Admiral is built up as the main antagonist. For much of the script, Tobey and Seabiscuit are headed for a showdown with this critter. But in a surprise twist, Tobey is injured and another jockey rides Seabiscuit to victory. Now I love left turns, and this one's a biggie. But it's also unsatisfying. That's because protagonist Tobey doesn't defeat the bad guy (War Admiral). Having someone else defeat the bad guy enervates the lead and makes him passive, helpless and not at all interesting. The hero must overcome obstacles on his own, or else we won't respect him as a character.
Now some might say, "Hey, this is a true story, and you can't mess with a true story. Tobey's character didn't beat War Admiral in real life." OK, fair enough. But we're not exactly watching a documentary here. And SEABISCUIT doesn't follow "real life" anyway. For instance, Tobey's character wasn't abandoned by his family -- he left them to become a jockey. So why not include Tobey in the War Admiral race to make it more emotionally satisfying?
And then there's the structure. Once War Admiral is defeated, the story goes on for another forty minutes. Not good. The defeat of the antagonist is always the natural climax, and any picture that continues on feels stretched out and lethargic. Tobey and Seabiscuit get injured together, recover together and win together in a race that doesn't involve the antagonist, and thus feels less of an obstacle. It's nice to prove you can still ride, but it's much more important to prove you're the best (by beating War Admiral). Tension must build towards the climax, not decrease, for with less tension comes less interest.
It doesn't help that this final section is the most predictable. Of course we know Tobey and Seabiscuit will ride again. It's a foregone conclusion. This predictability undermines emotional engagement at the end of the picture when you need it most. Ross should have ended with Tobey beating War Admiral. This would have been predictable, too, but the natural climax at least would have mitigated some of the effects.
Now SEABISCUIT isn't a bad script, but it could have been a great one with more focus and a tighter structure. Would it have been less true? Factually, yes. But emotionally, where it counts, it would have been perfect.
Responses, comments and general two-cents worth can be E-mailed to gillis662000@yahoo.com.
A graduate of USC's School of Cinema-Television, Tom McCurrie has worked as a development executive and a story analyst. He is currently a screenwriter living in Los Angeles.
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