Name:______________________________________ Date:________________ Hour:_______ English I – Seabiscuit Film Guide Comprehension Activity Directions: Answer the following questions about the film Seabiscuit. **Give your answers in complete sentences.** 1. What is the significance of the barbwire that Tom (the cowboy) touches in the beginning of the film? What does it represent? 2. What kinds of hardships did the following characters endure with the Great Depression? a. Tom: b. Johnny (Red): c. Mr. Howard: 3. Why was Seabiscuit forced to lose? What does the narrator mean by this comment? As a human, how can you relate to this event? Why/How? Explain. 4. Besides an angry, hurt horse with a lot of potential, what does Tom see in Seabiscuit? At the same time what did he see in Red (i.e. Why did he put the two together?) 5. When Tom says of Seabiscuit, “He’s been running in circles so long, he’s forgot what he was born to do.” What does he mean? Apply this to humans. 6. In what ways are Seabiscuit and Red similar? In what ways are Seabiscuit, Red, and the folks enduring the Great Depression similar? 7. If it was not the jobs, the money, or the programs (such the CCC) what was it that healed America? 8. Both Tom and Mr. Howard say, “You don’t throw a whole life away just ‘cause he’s banged up a little.” What does this mean to the story? How can we relate this saying to what it means to be American? 9. Red’s gift was riding horses. Tom’s gift was training horses. Charles’ gift was ingenuity. Marcelle was a helper. What is your gift? How are you using or pursuing it? 10. Which of the characters in the film, Marcelle, Charles, Tom, Red, or Seabiscuit do you best relate to? Tell me why you think this. Explain. 11. Who is the hero of Seabiscuit? Why? What type of hero is s/he? 12. How did Seabiscuit shape and influence the lives around him? “Racing in the Great Depression” http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/seabiscuit-racing-depression/ By the time the Great Depression descended on the nation like a bitter cold front, horse racing in the United States was already in a deep freeze. It had gone cold during the first decade of the twentieth century, after a series of race-fixing scandals triggered a wave of legislation making betting illegal. The sport crumbled. At the turn of the century there had been 300 racetracks nationwide; by 1908, only 25 remained. The American bans proved a boon to the Mexican horse racing business, and Tijuana became a betting mecca. Racing Renaissance In the 1930s impoverished state governments, in search of ways to increase revenues, returned to The racetrack was the potential honey pot of horse racing. In exchange for legalizing betting on the sport, one state one of the few after another exacted steep taxes on racing revenues. The deal was mutually beneficial to private places to gamble in investors and government tax collectors, and led to a 70 percent increase in the number of tracks the 1930s across the country. At the racetrack, crowds turned up as large as any that had ever assembled to watch horse racing. Big Money In 1933, California legalized betting on horses and the sport found a home north of the Mexican border again. Near Los Angeles, investors spent about $3 million on the state-of-the-art Santa Anita Park, which thrilled horse owners and racing fans everywhere by offering a $100,000 winner-take-all prize in its signature annual event, the Santa Anita Handicap. Today, the prize would translate to over $7 million. Such extravagant prizes in economically sour times drew the horses, and the horses drew the fans. Depression-Era Diversions People visited the track by the thousands every day, eager for the drama of a horse race. Horse racing, along with baseball, dominated the sports world. Sports were not the only diversions available to Americans struggling to grind out a living. Movie theaters transported viewers to places as appealing as Oz, attracting 85 million people a week. Others preferred to take their escape around the living room radio, listening to the heroic exploits of The Lone Ranger or Little Orphan Annie. Dreaming of a Pay Day The horses’ power and beauty and the excitement of racing undoubtedly attracted many to the grandstands. Another draw, though, was the possibility of pay day that promised relief from the tight clamp of poverty for a week, a month, or, if a long shot finished first in the big one, even a lifetime. The Only Place to Bet “The opportunities for gambling in the 1930s were very limited,” says Gene Smith, the author of many books on racing. “There were no state lotteries. Football was a very minor sport. Professional basketball was a very minor sport. You wanted to bet on a prize fight, you had to go find a bookie or something. There were casinos in Nevada, but how many people go to Nevada? Hence the only place you could really bet was at a racetrack.” Come On, Seabiscuit! Seabiscuit was a true crowd-pleaser. Bettors, whether they were the hardcore daily ones or casual visitors, usually cheered a horse by its number: “Come on — Number Three!” A large percentage of horse fans seemed to connect with Seabiscuit, and he was one of the few horses they rooted for by name. An Underdog Who Triumphed Fans, struggling to survive in their day-to-day lives, might have identified with the horse because of his underdog status. His stance was not regal; his body was rather low-slung. He had an awkward-looking gait. He had been mistreated as a young horse, raced and whipped too often, treatment which had turned him into an under-achiever and a steady loser. He had his greatest success at a relatively old age, another reason for fans to embrace him. He also had what many thought would be a career-ending accident. Still, Seabiscuit came back to win the Santa Anita Handicap with his jockey Red Pollard, who had a matching hard-luck story. That race, and a glorious win, was his last, and it came in 1940, just as a trying decade was finally coming to a close. Says Gene Smith: “This is the story of every happy-ending fairytale that Mother read to us when we were in the nursery. And to a depression-ridden, anxious, frightened nation, it must have come like a great sunrise.” Writing Activity – read the PBS article “Racing in the Great Depression” and answer the questions that follow. As the film notes, Seabiscuit’s fans compared him to a hero in one of the books of Horatio Alger. A number of celebrated Americans emerged from a humble background and/or overcame significant hurdles to achieve success. **Answer the following questions using COMPLETE sentences.** Which of Seabiscuit’s qualities did American’s identify with? Why did they so strongly identify with Seabiscuit and his trials? Why are people today still able to identify with this quality? Why is this image of a person succeeding through individual effort and often against great odds so appealing to Americans? What makes Seabiscuit’s story an “American Story”? (In other words, how can you relate Seabiscuit’s story to what it means to be “American”?) .