Seabiscuit: What did Red want the $20 for?

Cafe Society
1

Okay, I just rented Seabiscuit. Good movie. Anyway, sometime after all the principal players came together, Red Pollard (the jockey) asked Charles Howard (the owner) to borrow ten dollars. He began to explain that he hadn’t been to the dentist in a long time, but then he left off explaining (to my mind, as if he’d been lying) and just said he needed the money. Charles responded by loaning him twenty dollars.

Okay, why? What was the point of that scene? I waited to find out what he wanted the money for (I thought it had something to do with his family, maybe), but it was never mentioned again.

Was this “scene” mentioned in the book?

2

I just watched that earlier tonight and had the exact same question.

3

In the film, Howard is always shown as being the world’s most benevolent human being. Giving Red $20 when he asked for $10 for probably no better reason than wanting to go out and get drunk shows what a nice guy he is.

4

I know why Howard gave him the $20. I want to know why Red wanted the $10 in the first place.

5

Thank you, racinchikki. My sentiments exactly. It seemed a bit out of character for Red.

6

Indeed. He didn’t seem to be the type to ask for money just because he felt like having some in his pocket. I thought for sure it would end up serving a purpose beyond the proposed showing-how-amazingly-generous-and-wonderful-Howard-is.

7

I don’t believe that particular scene was in Hillebrand’s book. It’s too small a detail for anyone to remember.

Obviously, Pollard needed money for something. His vice was drinking. He likely needed the money for that. If you read the book, you learn that Red Pollard drank. A lot. His drinking is downplayed in the film.

So, I’ve just assumed that in the film Red Pollard is coming up with a flimsy excuse to get money to get drunk.

8

Ah, well. That makes a bit more sense, then. As a filmmaker, though, I would’ve left it out, or completed it. It was more like half a scene.

9

I think he needs the money to pay back a bet he lost. Wasn’t he wagering with George on the race they were about to run when they were sitting in the starting gate?

10

I guess I assumed that that scene was more about Red being comfortable enough to ASK for something. I saw it as kind of a father-son type relationship at that point.

11

Wasn’t this scene shortly after we saw Red get the crap beat out of him in a boxing match? I thought he really did need to go to the dentist.

–Cliffy

12

I agree with Breezy. I think it was meant to show the developing of the relationship between Pollard and Howard, more than anything to do with Pollard’s actual reason for wanting a loan.

13

Red was upset he never heard from his father, who promised he’d come back. When Charles acted like his father by loaning him $, Red goes to the bridge and throws away the books his father use to read to him, cutting the tie of his father & family. He had a true father in Charles.