Hollywood has a history of telling the true story of underdog racehorses and those in charge of their success. Secretariat and Seabiscuit immediately come to mind. What is it about racehorses that provide such compelling stories? Maybe it’s not so much the horse, but rather about the team coming together to accomplish the impossible (Seabiscuit), or a woman holding her own in a male-dominated world (Secretariat). In Dream Horse it's also less about the horse and more about the people that drive the story.
Dream Horse is the unlikely true story of a small-town community pooling their money together to create a syndicate for the purposes of breeding a racehorse for competition. Although she has little knowledge or experience, Jan (Toni Collette) convinces the town, currently experiencing significant job loss and hardship, to join her on this venture and create a syndicate of investors. Given just a one-percent chance of success, the horse named Dream begins paying off and giving hope to those in the struggling community. This heartwarming true story of hope was written by Neil McKay and stars Toni Collette and Damien Lewis.
Here are your five screenwriting takeaways from the sports dramedy, Dream Horse.
We immediately see the down-trodden state in which our lead character lives. It’s hard times for Jan and the community in which she lives. Businesses are closed, many are struggling, and Jan, who works two jobs, is ignored by her husband who spends his days sitting on the couch. Although having never raced horses, she has bred and raced other animals, so she's got glory days to look back on with hope. Jan meticulously concludes that if she collects the money, she can breed a racehorse.
All of this begins the arc the lead character and the community will go through. Screenwriters can see how the environment was established with little to no dialogue. From Jan’s wide-eyed stare next to her snoring husband, to her strolling by a closed-down business with boarded-up windows, the viewer gathers everything they need to know about the circumstances.
It may not seem like real life has the same arc as a character might in a hero’s journey, but the writer can still use this method to carve out a story that takes the audience on an adventure.
From Jan’s desire to invest in a racehorse (the Call to Adventure) to her ability to create the syndicate (crossing the threshold), all the way to her returning home a changed person, we can follow Jan’s hero’s journey and see how this device can be used even within a historical film.
Using specific features to humanize characters, each with their own set of quirks, creates well-defined people within your story. In Dream Horse, there are several characters taking part in the syndicate and with the audience invested in their lives, it’s important to show how the ups and downs of the horse racing industry impacts them all.
The film has several montages that show us routines and quirks within these supporting characters’ lives. Sometimes, it’s one of the members’ choosing their lucky socks, another’s way of collecting money for the syndicate, or Jan’s hanging the newspaper clippings of the horse’s accomplishments. With each one, we see how this device is used to round-out supporting characters while giving the sense of time passing.
The fish out of water concept is used in comedies quite a bit, and, although this is a true story, this concept fits the mold of the story. In a sport known for its elite owners, we’re shown the world of a group in a lower class interacting with those who have better means.
On top of that, the mere fact that they’re working to breed a racehorse is well out of their capability. Yet, the group of outsiders sticks together as one, accepting who they are and embracing the accomplishments they’ve made.
Some ways McKay uses the fish out of water concept:
The movie is about a horse but, of course, on a deeper level, it’s about much more than that; in the same way that Rocky isn’t really a boxing movie or The Blind Side isn’t really about football. In Dream Horse, the town needs a win — they need hope. At one point, Jan reminds the syndicate that they had no jobs and no community, but now they have hope.
While the plot of the movie surrounds the horse, screenwriters must find the heart of the story – just like in other sports films. When you have heart and memorable characters, the sport helps drive the story, not overwhelm it. If someone wanted to watch sports, they could find the means in a matter of minutes on TV or their phone.
Audiences want someone to cheer for. Whether the writer tells a sports story or a biography in its historical context, it’s important to focus more on the characters than the details of the sport. Remember, it didn’t matter whether Rocky won or lost, it’s his calling out for Adrian at the end that the audience remembers. In Dream Horse... You'll just have to watch.
Dream Horse is currently playing in theaters