NY Post’s Lou Lumenik writes the following, vis-a-vis Seabiscuit and Secretariat:
In my¬†morning-line piece on next year’s Oscars published in March, I named “Secretariat” as a long-shot pick, reasoning that Disney’s Oct. 8 release could very well follow in the hooves of “Seabiscuit” (2003), which nobody thought had a prayer of being nominated for Best Picture. And that Tony Angelotti-engineered coup was in a field of just five pictures!
It wouldn’t hurt, though, if Disney’s came up with a less generic-looking poster for this fact-based story about the 1973¬†Triple Crown Winner, whose triumph gave a big boost to thoroughbred racing. The intriguing duo of¬†Diane Lane andJohn Malkovich play owner Penny Chenery and trainer Lucien Lauren. Director Randall Wallace has an Oscar pedigree — he was Oscar-nominated for writing “Bravehart” — but it remains to be seen if “Secretariat” will be¬†entered at the unofficial starting line for the movie awards season, the¬†Toronto International Film Festival. The release date suggests that’s a possibility.
The thing is, those of us paying extra, nose-up-against-the-glass attention to the Oscar race that year absolutely did not underestimate Seabiscuit. Really and truly. ¬†Secondly, after last year’s The Blind Side blindsiding everyone, no film should be considered too low-brow, too mainstream, or too poorly reviewed – not that The Blind Side was any of those things. ¬†Secretariat should be considered a contender along with every other film. ¬†So I guess I don’t get the whole “long shot” thing. ¬†And the subsequent “I told you so” that will follow should the film get nominated.
Oh and yeah, John Malkovich alert.