I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Good start, but then it gets ruined

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Irish-accented Shirley Temple (as Margret O'Hara) arrives in the small, bluegrass town of Paris, Kentucky with her horse training uncle Barry Fitzgerald (as Shawn O'Hara). He will nurture the famous racehorse "Seabiscuit" while Ms. Temple studies nursing. Soon, they relocate to a ranch near Southern California's famed Santa Anita racetrack. Because Temple's brother "Danny" died tragically in a horse race, Temple is reluctant to become involved with jockey Lon McCallister (as Ted Knowles), although they are mutually attracted...This film somehow manages to be unappealing despite having several advantages. It's photographed in Technicolor and effectively incorporates some footage of the real "Seabiscuit". When the available footage is in black-and-white, so goes the movie; it's nicely done. And Shirley is lovely...Although she has been appearing as a "grown-up" for years, Temple is still a distracting actress. Moreover, in this one, she plays her character with an Irish brogue. The script could have easily been re-written to begin with Mr. Fitzgerald arriving to join Temple in the US, following the death of a parent (instead of her brother), so perhaps Temple wanted to essay the accent. The story is more about her romance than the horse, and Mr. McCallister is an asset as Temple's leading man. The African and Asian stereotypes are grotesque.***** The Story of Seabiscuit (11/11/49) David Butler ~ Shirley Temple, Barry Fitzgerald, Lon McCallister, Rosemary DeCamp

Once upon a time in America, there was a very great Thoroughbred racehorse named Seabiscuit. He ran some remarkable races and is justly recalled as a truly great runner.A few years after Seabiscuit left the track, this incredibly terrible movie was made about him. It has little to do with the life and times of the real Seabiscuit, whose real story is more compelling than this dreadful, saccharine fiction.In the days when this movie was made, a lot of people in Hollywood were involved in racing, so it is hard to understand how NONE of them got racing right on the screen. All of the racing movies from this period are horrible, sentimental, inaccurate, and just plain bizarre. No one has to make up stories to make racing compelling, but Hollywood almost always does make up piles of syrupy manure to go into these films; the recent Seabiscuit is an exception, and got most everything ***right***.The Ruffian movie was a reeker (no, Ruffian was not a short-legged gelding...)and I dread the upcoming Secretariat movie will stink as well.Avoid this movie! It offends racing fans! It offends black Americans! It offends Chinese Americans! You have been warned! I gave the movie 2 stars because of the good condition of the newsreel footage of the real horse in action.

I was always in awe at Shirley Temple's amazing talent as a child and always wondered what kind of adult actor she would be, then TCM showed this movie and I got the chance to see for myself.Her acting here is kinda hot and cold. There are some scenes where she's brilliant, while in other scenes she just seems to read the lines without much feeling. Still, she was good enough to make me want to see more. It's a shame she didn't do much film work after this one. I think she would've been a major sex symbol.The rest of the movie was kinda boring and predictable. When they showed the original racing footage, they did the whole racetrack scene in B&W. I thought it was funny how they went from the hospital room in color, to looking at a racing form, then to everyone at the race track in B&W. I thought it was funny because I'm sure they were trying to make it almost unnoticeable by using the racing form as a go between. I would have left the footage out of the movie and done the scene in color.There were two things about the love story that I thought were interesting. I thought that Ted fell in love with Margaret too quick, then after Margaret refused to let Ted kiss her, she kisses him with a bunch of pecks all over his face, followed by one planted on the lips.

Had to see the movie after reading the wonderful bestseller about Seabiscuit. Supposedly uses the real footage of the match race between War Admiral and Seabiscuit. Acting aside, the historic race alone is worth viewing the movie.