It is the depression and no - one escapes the harshness of the times. It is during these bleak days that horse racing quickly gathers momentum, and it is under these circumstances that the four main characters stories entwine. Howard seeks a new business venture in horse racing and hires Pollard as his Jockey and Smith as his trainer. Smith happens along Seabiscuit, a broken horse and narrowly saves him from a bullet, then insists that Howard lets him train the ill - tempered horse for racing.
Seabiscuit soon becomes the ‘underdog who could’, and wins many races. But despite his popularity, Seabiscuit is seen as a cheap novelty by the elite of the East Coast Horse Racing, headed by Samuel Riddle, owner of the triple - crown winner ‘War Admiral’. Howard gains public favour in order to force Riddle to put his money where his mouth is, and this rapidly grows into a media frenzy.
Seabiscuit, the representative of the underdog hopes and dreams and War Admiral, the beneficiary of champion breeding and training, finally race in 1938 at a race course named ‘Pimlico”. Before this time, Pollard shatters his leg, and is unable to ride in this race; in fact he is told that he will never ride again. After the race, at Pimlico, Seabiscuit also injures his leg, and Howard is informed that he will never race again.
Despite the odds stacked against them, Seabiscuit and Pollard refused to give up. Both Seabiscuit and Pollard slowly rehabilitate each other, and race together again, despite the protests that Howard and Smith voice. The last race in this movie is spectacular, and shows the greatest perseverance that could have been achieved by these characters. Just when it looked like Seabiscuit was beaten in the home stretch, he ducked in between the horses in front and came away with a victory.
This film shows how these men and beast overcome incredible odds to achieve their goals. I think that if everybody showed the perseverance that the characters portray, life would be much simpler. They never let anything get them down, and I dare to say that more people than what you would have at any World Series or football grand final today would have attended, and possibly nobody left the track feeling disappointed, but instead full of hope.
In our daily lives, we encounter many times when we persevere, even if we don’t realise this. When things go wrong, we generally try to find a way to remedy the situation, this is perseverance. Going to work, school or an activity that we attend regularly, even if we don’t enjoy it, this is commitment, which shows perseverance.
Believing in your dreams, just as the characters in Seabiscuit did is perseverance. Perseverance is a commitment, a dedication to yourself and following through with your actions. Perseverance enables an individual to endeavour in spite of adversity. Perseverance is setting goals and sticking with them, making adjustments if needed, until completed. Just like in the movie, when Seabiscuit and Pollard were told they couldn’t go on, they adjusted their goals and finished what they had set out to accomplish. Also the fact that Pollard and Seabiscuit were supporting each other is part of persevering as well. Without support or encouragement, I don’t think persevering would be easy.
Believing in one's self and your goals, achieving what you set out to do, having courage to achieve what you want to achieve and having encouragement along the way, all play a role in perseverance.
The characters in this movie persevered through all kinds of problems by keeping focused on their goals. Everyday, whether it is getting out of bed for work, school or something else, completing tasks that you need to do / want to do, or even just cooking a meal. Having goals and completing the goals, as small as they may seem, is persevering. This movie shows characters persevering through all sorts of ‘hard issues’, but not all things we persevere at are ‘hard’. Every day, I get out of bed and have breakfast with my son, and then I will sit down with my son to watch a program with him. I then do some homework, maybe start some clothes washing or baking and then it is lunch time. Just in a few hours I have persevered four maybe five times without even knowing. Perseverance doesn’t always need to be acknowledged, but if you look close enough at your own life you will probably see a fair amount of persevering.
‘If you look in the mirror, the person you see staring back at you is probably a person who has persevered at some stage.’
On reflection of the issue of “perseverance” which is shown in this movie, I have gained the knowledge that in even the simplest task, anybody can persevere. I had never realised that just believing in ones self and your goals is perseverance. I took for granted the tasks which I completed everyday as just mundane tasks, but did not realise that by completing these tasks was persevering.
I believe that this movie is based wholly on the health issue of perseverance, as all the characters portrayed persevered through the hard times. I would recommend this move to absolutely anybody as it made me realise, as I am sure others will find, that persevering is a part of everyday life.
I believe that this movie was about the relationships people have with each other, and the situations we find ourselves in because of these relationships. I will take with me the knowledge that I am persevering everyday, whether or not I realise it, and that puts a smile on my face.
