Search - Seabiscuit - The Lost Documentary on DVD

The 'biscuit

Annie Van Auken | Planet Earth | 02/02/2010

(3 out of 5 stars)

"SEABISCUIT: THE LOST DOCUMENTARY is a colorized version of a 1939 film based on the Hazel Merry Hawkins story, "A Colt Was Born." It's a slight work, probably best-suited to racing aficionados.

Disc extras include five chapter access, the original b&w feature and two charts: Seabiscuit's pedigree and key in-the-money races. Colorization is primitive and the film used generally dark with a noticeable side-to-side wobble at the outset.

Rapid-paced narration takes us briskly from the immature colt's meadowed youth to his first January '35 race at Hialeah, a 4th place finish and 50 buck purse. The narrator calls this event breathlessly and his hammering pace, like Seabiscuit's, rarely slows during the balance of this program.

Emphasis in the 1937 and '38 seasons is on cash totals with a Santa Anita loss by a nose a highlight. The 22 minute picture ends with Pimlico and underdog Seabiscuit's successful challenge of War Admiral. A scroll following this "finish line" fills in the horse's story: a 1939 leg injury and a comeback that in 1940 culminates in victory at Santa Anita. Retirement later this year is followed by siring of "over 50 little biscuits."

In 1947, the magnificent little stallion's heart gave out at age 14."