BETTING ON 'SEABISCUIT' ADAPTATION OF POPULAR BOOK HAS INSIDE TRACK ON MATURE AUDIENCES, BUT WILL DERIVATION FROM SOURCE PROVE A HANDICAP?

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Writer

There's a scene about a half hour into Gary Ross' version of ``Seabiscuit'' where wealthy automobile man and would-be racehorse owner Charles Howard meets the mysterious horse trainer Tom Smith. Howard watches as Smith tends to a broken-down horse, asking if he's going to keep the animal.

``You don't throw a whole life away just because he's banged up a little,'' Smith gravely intones.

It's a metaphor with a capital M, since Ross means us to understand that Smith is referring not just to the horse, but to himself, Howard and, as we'll come to see, jockey Red Pollard, the still-unseen Seabiscuit and, most significantly, America, a country knocked on its backside by the Great Depression.

It's a ponderous moment, and it's nowhere to be found in Laura Hillenbrand's best-selling book. But then, Ross' movie isn't out to tell the story of a wildly popular underdog thoroughbred and the three men who owned, rode and trained it. Ross sees Seabiscuit as a metaphor for America. Forget the horse - the real hero of Ross' movie is Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

This might come as news to the millions of people who have read Hillenbrand's colorful account, which, unlike the movie, positively reeks of the smell of the racetrack. While Ross - who has been a creative force behind movies like ``Pleasantville'' and the populist ``Dave'' - has remained fairly faithful to the details of Hillenbrand's book, the tone of his movie is completely different. Where Hillenbrand's writing revels in small, odd and outlandish moments, Ross' filmmaking maintains an atmosphere of solemn reverence.

Early reviews have not been kind to the approach. Newsweek praises Ross' ambition, while taking him to task for getting carried away with his metaphors. In Variety, Todd McCarthy says the film has a ``somewhat embalmed quality that drains a gripping yarn of immediacy and excitement.'' Another magazine writer, asking anonymity, called ``Seabiscuit'' the ``biggest disappointment of the summer, if only because expectations were so high.''

The upshot is that a prestige picture that many had figured - sight unseen, mind you - would be a prominent Oscar contender could be left at the starting gate.

Of horses and men

Ross, understandably, doesn't see it that way. The elements of his movie that are being roundly criticized - the historical context, the earnest narration by historian David McCullough (best-known for his works on Ken Burns' PBS documentaries) and all heavy underlining of the psychic connection between the three men who handled Seabiscuit - were intentional and, Ross believes, necessary to tell the story.

``None of this is bull----,'' Ross, 46, says. ``I was going after larger ideas here. The story is about three broken men who could have quit, but instead reached out to each other, formed a kind of family and made history. Any one of these guys alone, they're done. They're not going anywhere. There's no horse, no victory, no perseverance, no re-engagement in life.

``And what these guys did in microcosm was true of the country in macrocosm,'' Ross continues. ``That's what stirred me. Herbert Hoover created Hoover Clubs to unleash the power of American businessmen. Ten years later, they were Hoovervilles. It didn't work. The country didn't get better by people pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps. It got better by people healing and helping one another.''

Hillenbrand stumbled upon a few details of Seabiscuit's story seven years ago while researching another magazine article. When she dug deeper, she was quickly hooked by the characters and events and decided to write a book, figuring she might sell, as she puts it, ``5,000 copies out of the trunk of my car.''

The three men in the story - owner Howard, trainer Smith and jockey Pollard - had seen better days before Seabiscuit came along. Howard had lost a beloved family member, Pollard was scrounging for rides, and Smith, a brilliant horseman, was languishing in Mexico. Fate brought them together, each man perfectly suited to rehabilitate a stubborn, knobby-kneed horse that had been pretty much discarded by its former owner.

A condensed version of Hillenbrand's book ran in American Heritage magazine. Ross - and many other prominent Hollywood filmmakers - read it and realized the cinematic possibilities. Ross, however, had an in with Hillenbrand: He was a lifelong horse-racing fan. In fact, when he was 13, in lieu of a bar mitzvah, Ross' parents took him to Santa Anita Park in Arcadia. (``Today you are a man, you can bet the trifecta,'' Ross jokes of the day.)

Ross consulted with Hillenbrand while he was writing the script, running every factual change by her. Adapting a 300-plus-page book with multiple characters, locations and a lengthy time frame was a huge challenge, and there were a number of phone calls to Hillenbrand's Washington, D.C., home.

``You always have to appeal to the purist, so we took a lot of time to get it right,'' says Kathleen Kennedy, one of four producers on the film.

Whip smart?

Along the way, some pretty significant changes were made, steering aspects of the story from fact into the realm of fiction. Jockey Pollard (played by Tobey Maguire) has become much more of a lost boy in order to heighten the father-son relationship between him and racehorse owner Howard (Jeff Bridges), a relationship that existed, though not to the extent that we see in the film.

In the movie, there's a wrenching scene where Pollard is abandoned at a racetrack by his parents. In truth, Pollard was indeed abandoned - by a guardian - but he was also a restless spirit, itching to leave home and see the world. Hillenbrand certainly never indicates that Pollard was haunted by feelings of desertion as Ross does.

``It became confusing because it was hard for me to put together what was the real stuff and what was in the movie,'' Maguire says. ``When you're referencing both, you wonder, `OK, what am I making?' At some point, I just had to toss the book aside.''

Ross also goosed the nature of Howard's personal loss and changed taciturn trainer Smith (Chris Cooper) into a much more accessible and genial character. Pollard also reveals a key piece of personal information that is kept private - out of absolute necessity - in the book. And Ross simply didn't have the budget to have a digital effects crew create the huge mountain of manure that memorably destroyed a Tijuana racetrack in one of Hillenbrand's best anecdotes.

In the end, Ross whittled his source material down to a 2-hour-and-20- minute historical epic that stands so far apart from the season's sequels and shoot-'em-ups that producer Frank Marshall calls the movie ``the antidote to the summer.'' Audiences haven't been flocking to period pieces lately, but Exhibitor Relations president Paul Dergarabedian believes ``Seabiscuit'' could prove to be an exception.

``I think people are waiting for a film of substance and I think this fits the bill,'' says Dergarabedian, whose company tracks box-office receipts. ``Audiences have really been disenchanted this summer, and 'Seabiscuit' might just benefit from that. Compared to what I've seen this year, it's a friggin' masterpiece.''

Glenn Whipp [phone]

glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com

Movies at full gallop

Good horse-racing films are few and far between. Here are a few recommendations, plus some dark horses:

The Black Stallion: This 1979 Carroll Ballard film about an Arabian horse and a young boy is not only cinematically gorgeous but a heartwarming family film. Not exactly a track film, but the horse gets trained, and there is a big race in the end.

National Velvet: Although remade twice, the 1944 version with Elizabeth Taylor as a young girl who trains her spirited steed for the English Grand National is the best.

Casey's Shadow: An offbeat family film (1978) with Walter Matthau as a single-parent racehorse trainer trying to raise a family.

Phar Lap: This 1983 film is based on the legendary Australian racehorse that becomes a champ with the help of a local stable boy.

... and a few dark horses: ``A Day at the Races'' (1937) has Marx Brothers' antics and a steeplechase race; ``Ben-Hur'' (1959) features betting and a chariot race; and in ``Guys and Dolls'' (1955), a bunch of gamblers ``have the horse right here'' but only in song.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Giddy up

Tobey Maguire saddles up as `Seabuscuit' races to win over audiences

(2) Tobey Maguire, left, and Chris Cooper play jockey and trainer to the title character in ``Seabiscuit,'' based on Laura Hillenbrand's best-selling book.

(3) ``The story is about three broken men who could have quit, but instead reached out to each other, formed a kind of family and made history,'' says ``Seabiscuit'' director Gary Ross.

Box:

Movies at full gallop (see text)