Hoss Talk

After years of making dumb movies about horse racing including two in which yours truly appeared (Who's Harry Crumb and Hot To Trot), someone finally got it right.

After months of hype the film version of Laura Hillenbrand's best-seller Seabiscuit: An American Legend opened at theatres nationwide and, like its hero, came out of the starting gate to finish in the winner's circle.

Director/screenwriter Gary Ross's adaptation is a throwback to the days when Hollywood truly cared about what it was producing.

The film opens with brief introductions to three lead characters -- owner Charles Howard (played by Jeff Bridges), trainer Tom Smith (Chris Cooper) and jockey Red Pollard (Tobey Maguire) -- and the life tragedies each has faced. Then we're into a great story with some of the most exciting racing scenes ever seen on the big screen.

How those racing scenes were done is a story in itself.

To help him get them right, Ross hired Hall of Fame jockey Chris McCarron as technical advisor. Among the many challenges was how to bring the viewer as close to the racing action as possible.

Ross knew even using the most accomplished jockey his cinematographer would not be in a position to get the closeup shots he wanted and film a race in real time.

Ross approached NASCAR racecar owner Allen Padelford, who designed a concept car known as the S.S. Seabiscuit that would allow the filming of horses in real racing time.

The S.S. Seabiscuit was built on a 12-foot-by-12-foot rolling platform with steering in the front and rear.

It also had a 454 cubic inch Chevy engine allowing it to go around the track at 50 miles-per-hour -- good enough to follow a race, not good enough to closely capture two jockeys in action -- shots Ross wanted.

The director's solution came by surprise when he visited the jockeys' room and saw riders working out on an equicizer -- a small mechanical horse that resembles a hobbyhorse -- used by jockeys throughout North America to stay fit.

Ross had two equicizers modified with realistic horse heads placed atop the new vehicle and mounted onto tracks enabling them to shift positions (one in the lead, then the other).

All this while the platform was powering around the track surrounded by all the other horses in the race.

Creatively using cutting-edge techniques and specially designed hardware and camera equipment, Ross has delivered a film worthy of a look.

Seabiscuit is a movie the public deserves, a film without car crashes and explosions but just a great story. It doesn't get better than this.

Tom Wolski can be seen on the Sport of Kings, 11 a.m., Saturdays on Citytv.

twolski@shaw.ca

Source: Vancouver Province
E-mail Tommy Wolski at twolski@home.com