i passed time on the plane to and from madrid reading seabiscuit the book in anticipation of seeing seabiscuit the movie , which kris and i saw today. although it's always dangerous to see a movie with the book so fresh in your mind, i still thought the movie was good - but not great. it will be interesting to see how it plays to the general public. our theatre was packed to capacity and filled with exuberent patrons, but one got the impression that they were all there to see how the movie and book compared.

as usual many liberties were taken with the original text to help the story move along quickly, while obliterating many of the nuances of the story. most of the decisions are understandable, given the fact that nobody comes to a summer move to see a fact-filled documentary; however, at times you can't help feel the pain of being bludgeoned with obviousness. yessir, all anybody ever needs is a second chance. but hey, it's summer and you can't blame them too much. interestingly, they decided to leave out any mention of the imposts, or weights, that seabiscuit was forced to run with. it would have seemed to add a good deal to the impressiveness of the horse's accomplishments to understand that he was often obliterating track records and opponents while carrying 20 pounds or more than the rest of the field. hi. ho.

regardless of a few minor flaws, if you want to see a good movie that's just a touch heavy-handed with emotion manipulation, but doesn't have one explosion or car chase, then go see seabiscuit .