Oscar watch: Underdog 'Seabiscuit' wins the feel-good award

Start naming the horse movies that have won best picture, and you'll get an idea of the uphill battle that "Seabiscuit" must face. (For the record, there's nary a whinny; even the popular "National Velvet" didn't make Oscar's final five.) But Gary Ross' warmhearted film is a story about the triumph of the underdog — both on and off the screen.

The audiences who flocked to "Seabiscuit" this summer — and helped to rack up a healthy box-office total of more than $120 million — are familiar with the story's cast of unlikely heroes: a knock-kneed horse, a near-blind jockey, a horse-whisperer trainer. But behind the scenes are a couple more. Laura Hillenbrand, author of the brilliantly detailed biography "Seabiscuit" on which the movie was based, spent years researching and writing her book, often while confined to her bed with chronic fatigue syndrome. And Ross, who hadn't directed since the box-office disappointment of "Pleasantville" in 1998, read an early version of the book and envisioned a movie, sweet and nostalgic, steeped in the warm browns and russets of an autumn afternoon.

And while other 2003 films may have faced severe casting challenges, the hunt for this particular title character may have dwarfed them all. Press materials for "Seabiscuit" note that the producers had to look for "a horse that would stand still; a horse that could angrily rear; a horse that would bite; a horse that would lie down (alongside another horse and a dog at the same time); a horse that could be ridden with multiple cameras close by; a horse that actors, trained to ride, but novices nevertheless, could ride without risk of being thrown. On top of all of that, they needed a horse that could win and they needed a horse that could lose."

Five horses ultimately raced as the little bay horse that could; with five more filling in for various specific needs. And, though you won't see any Oscar nominations for him, the usual close-up horse was Fighting Furrari. (After "Seabiscuit," 5-year-old Fighting Furrari was purchased by producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall for their daughters but shortly thereafter was donated to Skyline Guest Ranch in Telluride. Though retired from racing, he still makes occasional appearances, such as at last fall's Telluride Film Festival.)

Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper, Tobey Maguire and William H. Macy took the lead human roles, with a vast cast of extras — including more than 7,000 inflatable mannequins, mixed in with real people — filling the grandstands.

It's fair to say that "Seabiscuit" the movie can't compare with the book, with its wealth of stories and quirky history. (The section on jockeys alone is worth the cover price — did you hear the one about the supposedly dead guy who, toe-tag in place, ran back onto the track?) But the movie's seven Oscar nominations, in categories ranging from writing to art direction to sound, reflect an audience's engagement with this story of an unlikely winner.

Will life imitate art on Oscar night? Probably not, but as the only feel-good movie in the best-picture category, "Seabiscuit" may have as many rooters as its namesake once did.

Trivia: Ross, along with Steven Spielberg and "Seabiscuit" producers Kennedy and Marshall, co-owns a racehorse named Atswhatimtalknbout, who came in fourth in last year's Kentucky Derby.

Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com