Seabiscuit is an equestrian movie directed by Gary Ross, based on the best-selling book of the same name by Lauren Hillenbrand, who also wrote the non-fiction bestseller Unbroken. It tells the story of an unlikely American hero, Seabiscuit, whose underdog successes on the racing circuit during the depression era gave Americans the hero they needed during one of the most difficult and hopeless times in the nation's history. Seabiscuit was under-sized and consequently overlooked, which made his unexpected successes the story of hope and overcoming adversity that people needed so much at the time.
Starring Tobey Maguire, Jeff Bridges, and Elizabeth Banks, the film was nominated for an impressive seven Academy Awards, and also won the hearts of movie-goers and film critics alike. Its appeal was encapsulated in a review on the website Rotten Tomatoes, which summed up the film as "a life-affirming, if saccharine, epic treatment of a spirit-lifting figure in sports history"; basically, the film is a feel-good epic, which has the ability to raise the spirits of the modern movie-goer in the same way as it did the Depression audiences who watched Seabiscuit become the unlikeliest of heroes.
Despite being nominated for so many Academy Awards, and also two Golden Globe Awards, Seabiscuit did not follow its nominations with actual wins. Nonetheless, the film was one of the most respected and popular of the year, and reflected the success of the book that it was adapted from.
