Media Arts

Seabiscuit

Seabiscuit was a wonderful uplifting story with amazing visual effects. It will forever be considered one of the greatest films of all times. The director and producer Gary Ross visualized the movie and John Schwartzman cinematography artistically brought Seabiscuit to life. The cinematography is absolutely wonderful from simple static compositions of black and white montages to the full blown racing sequences. The transfer is wonderful from beginning to end and a pleasure for the eyes. Ross uses a combination of different camera angles with close ups in order to bring the audience into the thick of the action, like packs of horses running full speed jostling for position. The experience is breathtaking and shocking in its immediacy. The technical beauty of the shots was incredible. Wide angles conveyed speed and a feeling of energy of running horses moving towards or away from the audience.

The close-ups of the jockeys talking with each other as they raced side by side also drew you into the scene as Maguire and Gary Stevens, gave brief glances from the jockeys P.O.V. The wide angle shot displaying the beautiful landscape was one of the main character's of this film. When there were horses onscreen Ross made it look like working with animals were very easy and the backdrop was a common thing to see when you awakened in the morning.

I loved how we met each character in the story that all eventually crossed one- another's path. Much concern of art and the statement about life, was conveyed through the wonderful narration of David McCullough giving the story a documentary-style vignette about the era while historical footage flashed in sequence across the screen. Ross's timing was also excellent, like the scene when the camera takes a close-up shot of the phone ringing with an immediate cut to the newspaper dropping on the sidewalk, reporting the "Stock Market Crash."

Schwartzman and Ross gave the film a natural look and feel pulling on the heart strings of the audience. Mr. Ross is an incredibly visually oriented director and he conveys the story in short segments. He doesn't go into long drawn out scenes of what's happening. He gives us a comfortable amount of montages to appease our curiosity of time flying by which moves the picture along without feeling like you were rushed and needed to press rewind.

Normally, you watch horse races with binoculars from a mile away. It's an entirely different experience when you are right there in the middle of the race with the jockeys and horses. The special effect lighting on Seabiscuit training at night on the track was wonderfully executed with the fog and sound of his breathing with his hoofs hitting the dirt, and the stammered breath of the jockey played by Maquire. The image displayed exceptional color control and saturation. The camera control was evident having the audience ride along side Seabiscuit or with him. Uses of high speed cameras were probably utilized to speed up or