Seabiscuit [Blu-ray] by Universal Studios

Actors

• Tobey Maguire
• Jeff Bridges
• Chris Cooper
• Elizabeth Banks
• Gary Stevens

Format

• AC-3
• Color
• Dolby
• DTS Surround Sound
• Dubbed

Editorial Review

Proving that truth is often greater than fiction, the handsome production of Seabiscuit offers a healthy alternative to Hollywood's staple diet of mayhem. With superior production values at his disposal, writer-director Gary Ross (Pleasantville) is a bit too reverent toward Laura Hillenbrand's captivating bestseller, unnecessarily using archival material–and David McCullough's familiar PBS-styled narration–to pay Ken Burns-like tribute to Hillenbrand's acclaimed history of Seabiscuit, the knobby-kneed thoroughbred who “came from behind” in the late 1930s to win the hearts of Depression-weary Americans. That caveat aside, Ross's adaptation retains much of the horse-and-human heroism that Hillenbrand so effectively conveyed; this is a classically styled “legend” movie like The Natural, which was also heightened by a lushly sentimental Randy Newman score. Led by Tobey Maguire as Seabiscuit's hard-luck jockey, the film's first-rate cast is uniformly excellent, including William H. Macy as a wacky trackside announcer who fills this earnest film with a much-needed spirit of fun. —Jeff Shannon