--note--
2003 Universal Pictures and Dreamworks LLC
Directed by Gary Ross
Book by Laura Hillenbrand
Screenplay by Gary Ross
Tobey Maguire .... Red Pollard
Jeff Bridges .... Charles Howard
- - - - -
Seabiscuit is a tale of triumph and perseverance. Set in America during the Great Depression of the 1930s, it is a true story (based on a book by Laura Hillenbrand) of one horse and three men: a jockey, a trainer and a businessman.
Seabiscuit was a horse that defied all the odds to become a champion. And in doing so, he captured the hearts of a struggling nation. In overcoming his difficulties, he became an icon of hope for the people of the Depression.
We all love a story about the lowly and broken being restored and claiming victory. We love it because we want it to be our story. Stephen Ives, the director of a documentary about the famous horse, has spoken of Seabiscuit’s contagious appeal:
‘We all love to root for the underdog. Seabiscuit makes us feel
that we can do it. That it is possible to make something of
yourself with hard work, commitment and a little luck. This message, both now and in the 1930s was intoxicating for
the Americans and seemed to embody their American Dream.’
The Seabiscuit Story
Despite being a successful car manufacturer, Charles Howard (Jeff Bridges) loses his zest for life when his only son tragically dies in a car accident (which in turn leads to the break-up of his marriage). Charles gets a second chance through the love of Marcela (Elizabeth Banks), a woman who sees and understands his broken heart. She introduces him to horses – a great shift down in gear from cars and the pursuit of making money. Charles decides to buy a racehorse.
Tom Smith (Chris Cooper) is a horse trainer who has lost his world of wide-open space and ranges. Most people see him as a lunatic on the fringe of life. He is frequently awkward with people, yet finds horses far less complex - cultivating an almost mystic communication with them.
Charles and Marcela don’t judge Tom by his external circumstances; instead, they see a man who will spend his last five dollars to save a broken horse. When Charles hires him to find a horse and jockey, Tom picks two unlikely runners: Seabiscuit and Red Pollard are both at their lowest point. They are broken, wounded angry losers, and they seem incorrigible.
Pollard (Toby Maguire) is a failed boxer who has spent much of his life on the streets and in bus shelters. He was abandoned as a teenager by his parents, so has no family. He was left to fight for survival during an unforgiving time. His only inheritance is a bag of poetry books and the memory of the family and home he has lost. And he has changed his name from ‘John’ – ‘the beloved’ - to ‘Red’ – ‘the angry’.
Despite not being a great jockey, being blind in his right eye and 5ft-6 (which is tall for a jockey), Tom hires him.
Seabiscuit’s early career is a disaster. He races 35 times as a two-year-old, and comes last nearly every time. When Tom finds Seabiscuit, he has a rugged appearance and a frantic temperament; he is too small, and is considered worthless because he cannot be trained.
Clip One – When like Meets like
Tom Smith is sitting by a fire at night, when, through the bushes, Charles Howard appears and introduces himself. Standing near the fire is a horse, who has a bandage wrapped around his leg, with a piece of Hawthorn root inside it.
“Will he get better?” asks Howard.
“Already is, I reckon” replies Smith.
“Will he race?” asks Howard.
“Not that one,” says Smith.
“So why are you fixing him?”
Smith thinks for a moment: “Because I can. Every horse is good for something. You don’t throw a whole life away just because it’s banged up a little.”
Howard knows that this is the man he’s looking for.
Three months on, Tom Smith is in Saratoga, looking for a horse and a jockey on behalf of Charles and Marcela. “It ain’t just the speed, it’s the heart” he tells them.
The first time he saw Seabiscuit, the film’s commentator tells us, he didn’t pay attention to his size, or to his wheeze. He looked him straight in the eye, instead, and saw something he liked.
Smith is having another look at the horse walking around the yard, when his attention is drawn to a fight that breaks out nearby. A man is challenging all comers. “Come on, I’ll take you all on!” he shouts. It’s Red Pollard, the over-size jockey with a spirit to match. He looks at Red. Then turns to look at Seabiscuit. And a connection is made.
Later, Tom introduces Red to Seabiscuit. The horse, who has been bought and sold by a number of trainers who failed to bring the best out of him, is now an impetuous animal who is pacing around his stable in a frightening manner. Red walks in, unafraid, and begins talking to him. He soothes him, and offers the horse an apple. “I’m not afraid of you,” he says.
Outside, Tom talks to Red about Seabiscuit. How on earth is he going to become a champion? Smith has the answer: “He just needs to learn how to be a horse, again.”
All four main characters are ‘damaged goods’: “a horse too small, a jockey too big, a trainer too old and an owner too dumb to know the difference,” as Charles says. The truth is, we all get beaten up and beaten down by life from time to time. But that fact doesn’t define who we are or what we have to offer.
Clip Two: Sticking to the Plan
Marcela shows Charles the jockey’s new outfit, ready for the first race. It’s red and white, but looks too big, she thinks. He reminds her that it’s their jockey who is too big…
The runners and riders parade out in front of the main grandstand, and soon they’re ready for the off. In the starting stalls, one jockey looks over to Red and taunts him: “Kind of small, isn’t he?” Red looks back: “He’s gonna look a lot smaller in a minute, Georgie!”
Tom Smith has a game plan for the race. He’s told Red to follow the grey horse, and only make a break for it when the grey does likewise. But in a mad moment, another jockey cuts him up and almost causes him to come off the horse. Angered, Red makes Seabiscuit charge after the other horse, as Red seeks his revenge. The two horses storm into the lead; yet neither has the staying power. Red has gone too early, and the rest of the horses cruise past him on their way to the finishing line. He has blown it by losing his cool.
After the race, Smith rebukes Red. We had a plan, he says. Why didn’t you stick to it? “He fouled me, Tom. He fouled me. He fouled me.” There is deep anger in Red’s voice. Charles Howard is listening to the conversation, and can sense this goes much deeper than simply a foul on a racetrack. “Son, what are you so mad about?” he asks.
One of the things about problems is that a good many of them do not exist except in our imagination. The best way to move on with our own problems is to help others to solve theirs. Seabiscuit is retrained while Red is reclaimed and finally both are reintroduced to racing.
Separately, the pair were weak; but a failing jockey and a broken-down horse, put together, prove to be great. They ‘fit’ and understand each other. And soon, they set about winning races and setting records; in particular, they enjoy an outstanding victory over the triple-crown winner, War Admiral, at Pimlico in 1938, where ‘no horse ever covered the distance so fast’.
Seabiscuit is an American hero. He earns the nickname ‘The Wonder Horse’, and becomes a proxy for the nation. Millions of displaced, downtrodden Americans rooted for this pint-sized horse and his unbeatable spirit to win.
The underlying message is one of community and wholeness. In times of deepest tragedy, healing can be found and with perseverance, victory can be achieved.
What does the Bible say?
The Problem with Problems
In the New Testament, the Book of James tells us to ‘Consider it pure joy, whenever you face trials of many kinds’ (James 1v2). But how on earth can we consider trials as pure joy? It feels like James is having a laugh with us. He doesn’t know our problems. Why should we consider it pure joy when we are facing trials?
‘Because,’ he says, ‘you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.’ How we handle problems depends on our attitude towards them and how we choose to respond to them. There are a number of things we can observe about life in terms of our problems.
First, problems are inevitable. Remember that James says, ‘Whenever you face trials.’ If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.
Second, problems vary. James mentions ‘trials of many kinds’. There are lots of different sorts of problems, some big, some small. We are guaranteed never to be bored!
Third, problems are unpredictable. An alternative translation of the Book of James suggests that ‘When all kinds of trials crowd into your lives, don’t resent them as intruders.’
Do you ever have a problem and feel like saying, “Not now!”? You might need to access something from your computer when it crashes. You might have a flat tyre when you’re late. You might be getting ready to speak, when you blow your nose and find you have a nose bleed…
The problem with problems is that they can catch us off guard. They are inevitable, variable and unpredictable.
But the good news, fourthly, is that problems are purposeful. They can develop something good in our lives. They have value. But how does that work, exactly?
Well, problems test our faith. James says, ‘because you know that the testing of your faith...’ The word testing is a refining term. When silver or gold is heated to a very high temperature, it melts and is refined by the melting away of all the impurities.
I’m sure we’ve all been under the heat in some way. The classic example in the Bible of someone under intense pressure is Job. Everything went wrong for the man. He lost his family, wealth, friends and his health. He lost everything, except a nagging wife. And this was all a test, according to the Bible.
We are like tea bags: we don’t know what we are really like until we are dropped in hot water. Problems come to test our faith.
They also develop our perseverance. As James writes, ‘...the testing of your faith develops perseverance.’ The result of the difficulties in our life can be perseverance, or ‘staying power’. The ability, if you like, to keep on keeping on.
In Romans (5 v 4), Paul writes, ‘We know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us...’ We learn perseverance by having to persevere. Our problems mature us and develop our character. As James writes, ‘perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.’ God wants to use the problems we have to build character in our life.
And he uses all sorts of things to do this: circumstances, problems, difficulties and pressure.
How Do we Respond to Problems?
It’s a crucial question, for, as we have seen, we all face difficulties. It’s how we deal with them that counts, along with what we can learn through them.
First, we are called to rejoice. ‘Consider it pure joy when you face trials,’ says James. He is not instructing us to pretend we don’t have any problems. God is not asking us to deny reality. Sometimes, it’s irritating when people say, “Cheer up, things could be worse!” I did cheer up once, and things did get worse.
We rejoice in the problem, we don’t rejoice for the problem. But how can we be happy in the problem? The answer lies in the fact that God has a purpose - testing our faith, developing our endurance, maturing our character. If we are only happy when we never have any problems we will never be happy.
The ‘consider’ part of ‘consider it pure joy’ means to deliberately make up our mind. It’s a choice. Problems in life are inevitable. Misery is optional. We don’t have to be miserable over it.
‘How are you?’ someone might ask. And you might reply, ‘I’m not great, under the circumstances.’ The question is, what are you doing under the circumstances? Circumstances are like a mattress: if you lie on top, its comfortable; if you lie underneath, you suffocate.
First, we rejoice. Then, we request. We must pray about our problems. But what do we pray for? James also says (1v5): ‘If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault and it will be given to him.’
God’s wisdom gives us perspective on things. We need to pray for strength as well, to endure what we go through. This doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt, but it doesn’t have to devastate us.
In all things, we can find something to be excited about. A schoolboy who brought home his report had very poor grades. "What have you to say about this?" asked his mother. "One thing for sure," the boy replied, "You can be proud. You know I haven’t been cheating!"
Then, we must relax. We can look ahead with positive purpose.
A man called Wallace Johnson wrote this: ‘When I was 40 years old, I worked in a sawmill. One morning the boss told me, “You’re fired.” Discouraged and depressed I felt the world had caved in on me. It was during the depression and my wife and I greatly needed the small wages that I was earning at the sawmill.
‘When I went home I told my wife what had happened and she said, “What are you going to do now?” I replied, “I’m going to re mortgage our home and go into the building business.”
‘My first venture was the construction of a small building. Which developed into Holiday Inns. Today if I could locate the man who fired me I would sincerely thank him for what he did. At the time it happened, I didn’t understand why I was fired. Later I saw that it was God’s plan to get me into the ways of His choosing.’
Instead of letting circumstances make you become bitter, allow them to make you better. It’s our attitude that counts.
James goes on to write (1v12), ‘God blesses the people who patiently endure testing. Afterwards, they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him’. We cannot control all the things that are going to happen. We cannot control the direction of the wind - but we can set out the sail.
One day, a farmer’s donkey fell down into a well. The donkey cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally, he decided the animal was old and the well needed to be covered up anyway. It just wasn’t worth retrieving the donkey, so he invited all his neighbours to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well.
At first, the donkey realised what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone’s amazement, he quietened down. A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well and was astonished at what he saw. With every shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up. As the farmer’s neighbours continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and trotted off!
The best way out of a problem is through it. We must be willing to shake ourselves off and continue upwards.
Triumph over Adversity
In Seabiscuit, we see triumph over adversity. When both Red Pollard and Seabiscuit experience severe injuries, their racing careers seem doomed. Pollard was thrown off another horse he was riding, badly damaging his leg; doctors told him that he would never ride again. Seabiscuit also had an accident - six weeks after his great victory over War Admiral, he stumbled and ruptured a ligament in his left foreleg. It seemed very likely that he would never run again.
Over the summer of 1939, both horse and jockey convalesced together. Tom’s motto, ‘You don’t throw a whole life away just because it’s banged up a little’ became the driving force that resulted in these three men, Tom, Charles and Red achieving amazing things, despite their setbacks.
Clip Three: The Comeback Race
It’s the day of the comeback race, after both Seabiscuit and Red have been injured badly. The grandstands are packed, although Marcela is sitting by the stables, unsure of whether to watch. As the race starts, she walks around to where her car is parked, near the track, and climbs on top of the roof. She has to see what happens.
Seabiscuit is in the middle of the pack as the riders skirmish for position. Binoculars from the crowd focus on how the plucky horse will fare. And then, disappointment. Seabiscuit starts drifting from the pack, moving slower. It looks like this won’t be the great comeback everyone was hoping for.
“Come on!” Red shouts at the horse. And the horse begins to respond. He reels in one horse – and as he comes alongside, Red sees that Georgie is the rider. “How are you doing, Red?” he says. “Have a nice ride!” And at that, Red and Seabiscuit find form. Runner and rider charge through the pack, and coming around the last bend, they are neck and neck with the leader. The crowd are cheering him on. The packed stands erupt. Seabiscuit takes the lead and wins the race. Red’s commentary over the jubilation says it all: “Everyone thinks we found this broken-down horse and fixed him. But we didn’t. He fixed us. Every one of us. And I guess, in a way, we fixed each other, too.”
With great determination, Seabiscuit and Red Pollard won their race and clocked the second fastest time ever to be recorded at Santa Anita. Sports commentators called it ‘the greatest comeback in the history of American sports’.
Healing in times of Brokenness
The brokenness of the characters and the nation find a sense of healing in the story of this horse. As they work together for a common aim, they discover fulfilment and success: Red’s voice-over at the end of the film comments that ‘Seabiscuit healed the broken people’. He captured the hearts of the struggling nation because if he could overcome his difficulties, the people of the Depression had a chance to overcome theirs. Newspapers described him at the time as ‘a horse that runs with perseverance’.
It seems that rather than the horse healing the situation, Seabiscuit helped to create a situation in which all of these broken characters were brought together. The community (the three broken individuals and the American people) was healed in the process of uniting in the celebration of the unpromising horse.
The film challenges society’s belief in individualism. Often, we are persuaded to think that it is up to us - as individuals - to determine whether we succeed or fail. We sometimes try to face our troubles alone. Seabiscuit shatters this notion – it is instead a reminder that we only truly find healing when we come together. None of the individuals were able to overcome their tragedies on their own. They needed their community to bring healing to each other.
Whatever problems we are facing now, we can:
1. Ask God for wisdom to understand that problem, because the more we understand what God is doing, the less overwhelmed we are.
2. Ask God for the faith to remove it or endure it.
3. Cast all our cares upon Him, for He cares for us.
In other words: Don’t give up. If life gives us lemon, let’s make lemonade. As Corrie Ten Boom, a holocaust survivor, once said, “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”
The writer of Hebrews (12v1-3) says, ‘Let us run with perseverance the race that God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish. He was willing to die a shameful death on the cross because of the joy He knew would be his afterwards. Now he is seated in the place of highest honour in heaven. Think about all he endured when sinful people did such terrible things to him, so that you don’t become weary and give up.’
